Psychological Disturbances in Children as Related to Disturbances in Family Interaction

DURING the past 10 to 15 years, considerable emphasis has been focussed upon the family unit in an attempt to increase our understanding of psychological disturbances in individual family members. The influence of relationships with others, particularly with one's parents, upon the development of psychological problems within individuals has long been emphasized by personality theorists. Psychotherapists, too, have always been concerned with the patient's relationships to other family members. In working with children, for example, the therapist is interested in the nature of the child's interactions with his parents and siblings. He attempts to make inferences about intrafamilial relationships by observing the way the child symbolically expresses himself in play and by assuming that the child will reveal some of his feelings toward his parents by the way he relates himself to the therapist, i.e., the so-called transference phenomenon. In the case of an adult, emphasis is placed on the patient's childhood memories and fantasies in an attempt to reconstruct the pattern of intrafamilial relationships which existed during the patient's childhood. Beginning with Freud's early conceptualizations about therapeutic techniques, however, the therapist has always been cautioned against becoming involved with the patient's family. It was generally felt that the therapist must avoid having contact with members of the patient's family, on the grounds that such contacts would only contaminate, or interfere with, the therapist's understanding of the patient. These notions have undergone considerable

Acting out · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Feeling · Personality · Phenomenon · Psychotherapist · Reflexive pronoun · Child Therapy and Development · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology