Family Crucible

Description

"If you have a troubled marriage, a troubled child, a troubled self, if you're in therapy or think that there's no help for your predicament, The Family Crucible will give you insights . . . that are remarkably fresh and helpful." -- New York Times Book Review The classic groundbreaking book on family therapy by acclaimed experts Augustus Y. Napier, Ph.D., and Carl Whitaker, M.D. This extraordinary book presents scenarios of one family's therapy experience and explains what underlies each encounter. You will discover the general patterns that are common to all families--stress, polarization and escalation, scapegoating, triangulation, blaming, and the diffusion of identity--and you will gain a vivid understanding of the intriguing field of family therapy. Review: A *must-read* in the field of family therapy - As a practicing Marriage and Family Therapist, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to my peers, and anyone interested in how family therapy works. Presented in the form of the narrated story of a family of five (accompanied by plenty of theory), this timeless volume provides a good high-level look at the family therapy techniques used by the likes of Napier and Whitaker. Interested in becoming a family therapist? Read it. Thinking about having your family attend therapy? Read it. Wondering about the benefits of family therapy over individual therapy? Read it. Are you part of a family? Read it. This is a seminal work, and should be required reading for all MFTs and anyone who treats families. It used to be, but has fallen out of fashion due to it's age. I don't care how old it is (and yes, it is a bit dated), the ideas presented are largely timeless. I just re-read it again this year (late 2016), and loved every page. 10/10. Seriously. Review: Great Book - Part of the curriculum for my psych course. Really enjoyed this book. People seeing me reading it have also mentioned how much they enjoyed it.