ABSTRACT
The Dodds family was seen by Carl A. Whitaker as a demonstration in family interviewing after they had been in treatment for over a month with a family therapy team composed of a psychologist and a social work student on the staff of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. The session transcribed here has the problems inherent in demonstrations. The interviewer will not have contact with the family or the therapists again. He is relating to two audiences—the family requiring treatment and the professional audience being taught. His interventions are directed to both contexts and goals. However, the demonstration interview has the advantage of eliciting some of the most important characteristics of an interviewer’s style.
