ABSTRACT
The views and forms of intervention of systemic family therapy have gained widespread currency in social work in the form of adaptions. In psychoanalytically orientated social work a central focus in offering these forms of help is on creating more favourable conditions for the clients to develop in, while at the same time keeping the aspect of the relationship with them constantly in view. In its classic form milieu therapy, in the sense of a therapeutic community, puts its faith in the healing power of human community and as such has always formulated reservations about any form of therapeutic technique or exercising of social influence. A social worker working systemically would perhaps point out that the antisocial symptoms of the eleven-year-old involved had the function of stabilising the family and shaking the parents out of their preoccupation with alcohol, even maybe of bringing social institutions in on the scene.
