Customer Reviews

Family Kaleidoscope

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You would think this book is for specialists: family therapists, psychologists, social workers and so on. But is not. Or at least not only. Specialists will enjoy a book that is literature and still challenges your perspectives so deeply, but non-specialists will be especially amazed.
As a matter of fact, we all can be labeled "specialist", when it comes to FAMILY. We all know a big deal about our family and its structures, and its sorrows and its joys, don't we? Mr. Minuchin explains how families work in a way that will change your ideas about it forever and, accordingly, he challenges the way specialists have been working with families in the last years.

I particularly liked the observation of "normal" families who are dealing with divorce or remarriage of its members. I must admit I had never thought of divorce in a historical perspective, as Minuchin succeeds in putting it.
The description of the families with anorectic members are very interesting. Anorexia is treated by specialists as a very difficult issue to cure, and it is amazing to see how focusing on the family it becomes easier to understand and possibly to overcome.
In another section of the book, Mr. Minuchin describes how The Law takes decision about problematic families, completely ignoring their situation of "being a whole" and causing spirals of unresolved problems. He describes some extremely interesting cases of child murder and parent murder and analyses them, to convince us that our actual system of justice is absolutely biased when it comes to families.

What makes the book particularly enjoyable is the use of scripts of real session with families to explain the author's theories. If you are one of those readers, who-like me- love books filled up with dialogues, you'll love this! In a couple of cases, Minuchin writes himself a fictional dialogue, based on his expertise of families. And it is beautiful fiction too!

If you're new of Minuchin theories and techniques this is the book to read!
For further reading about Anorexia Nervosa, get Psychosomatic Families, anorexia nervosa in context, by S.Minuchin et Al.
If you're amazed by Minuchin healing power, get Family Therapy Techniques, by S.Minuchin

A great book. Sad how child and family have to suffer