ABSTRACT
The dynamic interlocking nature of family relationships, where the demands of instinct and society, impulse and control, may be served by different family members, has received increasing study in recent years. Bowlby (1949) reported the bringing together of parents and referred child, during their individual treatments, for occasional joint sessions. Other landmarks include Sperling’s (1951) description of the manner in which the child acts out its mother’s repressed needs and Henry and Warson’s (1951) concept of a family core neurosis which affects all members. Fisher and Mendell (1956) in a particularly interesting attempt to objectify this idea, applied various projective tests to two or three generations of several families. They concluded that ‘each family tends to be characterised by a special “flavour” or “atmosphere”. The projective responses of the members of a family manifest certain themes in common, as if there were a key motif that concerned the members of this particular group. Illustratively, in 1 family all 7 of the members, at 3 different generation levels, show an unusual preoccupation with themes of exhibitionism and self-display.’ Their impression that ‘this transmission process occurs primarily in terms of what is denied, forbidden and concealed’ is highly relevant, since the focus of family therapy is on facilitating intercommunication in these forbidden areas.
