ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter1 is to outline how values concerning family and marriage have changed in Sweden over the past century. Generally, any attempt to write a history of values has to contend with the challenge that there seldom has been a uniform value system in any one area. Values concerning family and marriage are no exception. Such values have varied between social classes, political groups, and between regions. Even laws, that from one point of view express generally accepted societal norms, can be obsolete, or become the subject of controversy and so no longer express such general values. It is my opinion that value changes in particular societies can be illuminated only in relation to specific social groups or phenomena. The changing values concerning family and marriage that will be delineated here are in one way or another associated with family counselling or its forerunners. Thus, my focus is on ideas connected with activities directed to preserving or at least ameliorating marriages or family relations.
