ABSTRACT
As a form of psychotherapeutic intervention, family therapy is a relative newcomer. Haley (1971) describes how the idea of trying to bring about change in the family, rather than in groups or individuals, appeared in America in the 1950s. This movement towards working with whole families came about at a time when the established psychiatric response to troubled individuals was to remove the individual from their social situation and to treat the intrapsychic problems causing their difficulties. The real world of the patient was considered secondary since what was important was his perception of it, his affect, his attitudes, the objects he had introjected, and the conflicts within him programmed by his past. The focus when treating the whole family was no longer on changing the individual’s perceptions, his affect, or his behaviour (although this may happen, it is not the goal of a family therapy approach), but on changing the structure of a family and the sequences of behaviour and communication between intimates.
