History of MFT Flashcards
When did marriage counseling develop? Who did it?
In the 1920’s. Clergy, lawyers, doctors/gynecologists, social workers, and college professors often served as “family life specialists.” Often the guidance was more practical than psychological.
What was the American Institute of Family Relations?
A notable early marriage counseling org, formed in the 1930’s
What was the Marriage Council of Philadelphia?
A notable early marriage counseling org, formed in the 1930’s.
Later it joined with the National Council on Family Relations to form the National Association for Marriage & Family Therapy in 1942.
What was the National Council on Family Relations?
A notable early marriage counseling org, formed in the 1930’s.
Later it joined with the Marriage Council of Philadelphia to form the National Association for Marriage & Family Therapy in 1942.
Who were Abraham and Hannah Stone?
Two doctors in NYC who opened a marriage consultation center in 1929, and offered marriage counseling.
Who was Clifford Beers?
He exposed inhumane treatment in mental hospitals, and spurred a movement to change mental health services. This work led to short-term facilities and child guidance clinics that emphasized the parent-child relationship as key to interventions.
What is the relevance of the inferiority complex?
Based on theories of Alfred Adler, the inferiority complex helps determine childhood psychological disturbances. Overcoming feelings of inferiority and inadequacy helps children overcome behavioral problems.
Freud’s key theories
Human behavior is motivated by unconscious, sexual and aggressive instincts. Expressions of these instincts are shaped by early childhood relationships between children and their parents.
What is the importance of family in psychoanalysis?
Family dynamics are only relevant in terms of exploring the extent to which family members, primarily the parents, had an impact on the development of the patients inner life.
Who was Alfred Adler?
Adler (1870-1937) broke away from Freud‘s psychoanalysis theories and established an independent school of personality and psychotherapy. Adler understood human motivation as being biologically and instinctually driven. Individuals were social beings, motivated by the drive to overcome feelings of inferiority, and achieve self-esteem, adequacy and power within social and relational worlds. Adlerians view the family as the primary social matrix that influences the formation of personality. There is a focus on understanding the self within the social context.
Who was Herbert “Harry” Stack Sullivan?
Sullivan (1892-1949) developed interpersonal analysis. Influenced by Adler. Sullivan believed that the human drive for interpersonal SECURITY motivates behavior. Security is key to the development of the self and is reinforced by relationships a person has with their caregivers especially their mother, and that caregiver’s responsiveness, or maternal anger or disapproval can create insecurity and anxiety, and possibly lay the groundwork for future emotional disturbances like schizophrenia.
Fromm-Reichmann and Henry Stack Sullivan helped shift thinking about individual psychology to considering human development in the context of family and interactions within relationships, rather than just what happens within a child’s mind.
Who was Frieda Fromm-Reichmann?
Fromm-Reichmann was a student/colleague of Sullivan. In 1935 she began theorizing that schizophrenia was the result of a cold, domineering, and rejecting yet overprotective mother. A male child can feel confused, inadequate and schizophrenic when they have a mother like this, especially if their father is passive, detached, and ineffectual.
Fromm-Reichmann and Henry Stack Sullivan helped shift thinking about individual psychology to considering human development in the context of family and interactions within relationships, rather than just what happens within a child’s mind.
What is Structural/Functional Theory?
A dominant sociological theory in the 1950’s: societies and social units are held together by cooperation and orderliness. The social units work best when they function smoothly as an organism with all parts, working toward the natural or smooth working of the system cooperation is maintained through adoption of agreed-upon, social norms and roles.
Assigning different roles creates efficiency. When disturbances happen, it causes structural strain that must be restored or else it can lead to social disorganization. When conflict emerges it requires adaptation to maintain equilibrium.
The function of family is to socialize children to fit into overall society. Family function and equilibrium is important, as is socializing children with social values and norms.
Who is Talcott Parsons?
The leading thinker of Structural/Functional Theory, ~1951.
What is Symbolic Interactionism?
This theory believes humans are meaning-generating creatures embedded in social interactions. These interactions are shaped by the meaning people assign to those interactions, as meaning is not inherent in the interactions themselves. Language is used to name and generate symbols that have meaning and value. Meaning is more important than fact. Meaning is generated by social interactions with others (more than inward reflection). Those meanings are then modified by both inner reflection and outward interaction.
The self is not only created through reflection, but also by taking on the role of the other, and imagining how one’s sense of self is perceived from another person’s perspective (this is “the looking glass self”, or the “me”). Thus, the Self has both inner and outer dimensions. The socializing influences, expectations and responses of a community (the “generalized other”) are important to the formation of self.
What were the main MFT theories of the 1950’s?
- General Systems Theory
- Cybernetics
- Communications Theory
- Ecological Theory
What made the theories of the 1950’s different from what came before?
These theories broke free from the ideas of psychoanalysis and began to understand mental disorders as a function of dysfunctional relational and communication patterns within families. They looked at the individual in their specific context (or “system”) rather than focusing on intrapsychic conflicts and fantasies.
Who is Ludwig von Bertalanffy?
The “father of general systems theory,” which describes the structural aspects of systems (1969). A biologist.
Who is Norbert Weiner?
He coined the term “cybernetics” in 1948, to describe how systems function.
