The use of family theory in clinical practice

Presented here is a family theory of emotional illness and its component system of family psychotherapy, which is one of several different theoretical approaches to the family, and one of many different kinds of “family therapy” that have come on the psychiatric scene in little more than one decade. A brief review of the family movement attempts to put this system into a kind of perspective with the overall family movement. Since this system places maximum emphasis on “family” as a theoretical system, the theory has been presented in some detail. The shorter section of family psychotherapy presents both broad principles and specific details about the usefulness of family concepts in clinical practice.