ABSTRACT
Nathan W. Ackerman is very much identified with the beginnings of the relatively new field of family therapy. In describing how the clinician should use himself in marital therapy, Ackerman suggests that the therapist "must be open, flexible, forthright, and even blunt." In the therapy of marital disorders, the therapist must know what he stands for, what he is trying to do; he must also know what he can and cannot do. The goals of therapy of marital disorders are to alleviate emotional distress and disablement, and to promote the level of wellbeing, both of the relationship and of each partner as an individual. The marital adaptation needs to be seen within that larger network of relationships that reflects the identity connections of each partner with his respective family of origin and with the larger community. As the marital balance shifts from one stage of the family cycle to the next, the diagnostic judgment must change accordingly.
