1. Discuss the early leaders. Keeping the secret of infidelity is probably not good, probably requires a lot of energy. If you like a client in an unhealthy way and it is affecting your counsel, then refer the person to someone else. Theodore Lidz started working with schizophrenics and continued to do so for most of his career, rather than families. He was the first to bring the father into the counseling sessions. The mother was usually brought in because she was usually blamed for everything. He found that husbands were often in conflict with their wife in many of the homes of schizophrenics. He noticed that these dads often focused on their daughter. Families with schizophrenics had very poor communication patterns. He also found marital schisms (very overt marital pathological conflicts - not a healthy condition). He found marital skews (a pathological marriage in which one spouse dominates the other). Lidz did some writing but not a whole lot.

John Bell began seeing families in the mid-1950s. He helped stimulate growth in Marriage and Family Counseling and did some writing. He based his whole Marriage and Family Counseling approach on group theory. He had the family sit in a circle and encouraged open, free discussion. If that was able to happen, then therapy occurred. He published "Family Group Therapy" in 1961. His book came out toward the end of his career. He added research and influence to Marriage and Family Counseling.

Carl Whittaker was the most radical and flambuoyant of family therapists ever. He considered himself to be atheoretical because theories were too encapsulating. He began working with schizophrenics at Emory University. He had the first retreat for Marriage and Family Counseling therapists off the coast of Georgia. He was one of the first to start one-way mirror viewing of therapists. He looked at the family systemically. He was a functionalist (thought that pathology happened for a reason). He chose spontaneous over theory. He was an artist, and his artistry was theory and counseling. He was very much aware of himself. He was able to listen to himself and watch himself while things were going on. He was one of the first to use co-therapists. Co-therapy lets one counselor focus on one aspect and the other another, such as content, process, emotional level, body language, and the direction of the session. It is easy for the therapist to get sucked into the family dance and be on the outside. He created Psychotherapy of the Absurd, which was going to any extreme such as taking a nap while the family fought). He did things to get people to interact. In his book "The Family Crucible", he described the schizophrenic as being out of contact with reality and responding to their own internally warped view of the world.

Murray Bowen created the genogram, and he also started working with schozophrenics. He focused on the mother-child dyiad. He liked to experiment (research and counseling). He found in many cases that the family, particularly the mom, was overly involved with the schizophrenic client (enmeshed - they were too close). He thought the individual often made him or herself crazy just to break away from the other person. He hypothesized more problems in the family because of enmeshment. Being too close creates friction when one person is trying to pull away and the other resists. "Undifferentiated Ego Mass" is another term for describing enmeshment, but it is even more extreme. His way to help was to make the schizophrenic be a real person, making the person more emotionally mature. He thought the person needed to understand boundaries, not focus on self-esteem. That would come with the individuating process. He encouraged students and clients on geneological voyage to work through the family history.

				Tom of Bethany

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Lesson 8. Early Leaders (Part IV)

 

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