ABSTRACT
Many techniques are available to help distinguish the subsystems of the family from one another. Most Western-oriented theories of family therapy note the importance of maintaining generational boundaries between grandparents, parents, and children. Structural therapists particularly emphasize this factor. They believe that a family functions most effectively if there are appropriate, distinct boundaries regarding rules, roles, responsibilities, and interactions for the parents and children. The formation of alliances or triangles across generational boundaries is seen as interfering with peer dyadic relationships between the parents or between the children. Allowing one child to assume a pseudo-parental role equal to the parents or even parenting a parent is defined as a dysfunctional pattern of family organization. Other examples include covert alliances in which one parent secretly supports the acting-out behavior of a child; a child acts out to demonstrate to one parent how he should handle the other parent; or a grandparent undercuts the disciplinary behavior of the parent with a child and treats the parent as another child in the family on the same level as the grandchildren. In each case the structure of the family is regarded as being out of line. The major assumption is that the family is a hierarchical organization.
