5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic book by great therapist and iconoclast on family therapy with "schizophrenics", June 27, 2011
This review is from: Leaving Home: The Therapy Of Disturbed Young People (Hardcover)
In the mid-1980s psychoanalysis (Freudianism) was still the dominant paradigm in clinical pschology graduate programs and in the "mental health" system, but it looked as if family therapy might soon be replacing psychoanalysis. Dr Salvador Minuchin had become a national celebrity among those training to be therapists due to his extraordinary success treating anorexics (over 90% cure rate) with family therapy. Virginia Satir had also attracted interest with her videos showing her getting difficult people to communicate openly with each other. This all happened before Psychiatry had cemented its marriage to the pharmaceutical companies.(This marriage reached fruition in the 1990s, disappointing people like me--I got fired from a family theray clinic in 1989 for doing real family therapy and encouraging patients to get off psych drugs; the psychiatrist there did not approve.)Haley became interested in therapy while studying film in grad school in the 1950s. After he got his MA in media studies Haley switched direction and studied hypnotherapy with the great Milton H.Erickson M.D. (about whom Jay wrote Uncommon Therapy, his other greatest book--he wrote over 20 books) and then worked with Gregory Bateson on mapping communication difficulties in groups.Haley co-authored the first paper on the double-bind. When Haley started off, anyone who wasn't a psychoanalyst was considered a heretic--Jay embraced the part with zeal. Jay wasn't interested in baroque theories or the self-indulgent one-upmanship status games rife in the Freudian field. He was interested in promoting change. Like radical psychiatrists Thomas Szasz and R D Laing (and other leading family therapists in THOSE DAYS) Jay rejected the idea of mental illness. He had the courage to remain faithful to his beliefs as he got old and as the family therapy field sold out to bio-psychiatry, compromising its "systemic" non-linear, non causal paradigm when it came to "schizophrenics" or "bipolars" or ADHD kids--by now they probably include most groups. Once the model was compromised, family therapists had a rationalization for justifying pushing psychiatric drugs.
Jay discovered that even using the word "schizophrenic" so biased the therapists whom he was training that they would sabotage their own work promoting change in the family. Leaving Home is I think Haley's best book--it is derived from his work doing family therapy with young "schizophrenics." It is one of the 10 most important books on therapy ever written, and should be required reading for everyone in the "mental health" field.
Jay (with whom I studied in 1988, a year after I trained with Minuchin) realized that the most important therapeutic task was to get the "identified patient"--the young man or woman who had trouble leaving home --out of the sick role. The second task (which was connected to the first task) was to address the problems BETWEEN the parents, although Jay
preferred an indirect method, as explained in the book. (I have found the kind of direct approach to couple counseling used by eg Minuchin is often a neceessary supplement to Jay's indirect approach.) Nevertheless all leading family therapists in those days would have agreed that understanding the dynamics of the family is the sine qua non for change. As Jay explains he believed that in the family with a "schizophrenic" young adult who is wary of leaving home and becoming successful in schoool or a job, the relationship between Mom and Dad is conflicted and tenuous.Johnny is unconsciously terrified if he leaves home Mom and Dad will split up.Mom and Dad are also afraid. This dynamic explains why the family becomes frozen, and can't get through the leaving home/empty nest stage of the family life cycle.Jay Haley shows (he includes real transcripts) how he helped Mary/Johnny to leave home, and Mom and Dad to stay together or accept breaking up. (Unfortunately the most common "solution" today is promoted by the mental health system: Mary or Johnny is labeled schizophrenic or bipolar by psychiatrists, placed on zombifying "meds" and inducted into a career as a chronic mental patient. Mom and Pop now have a reason to stay together: to take care of Mary, make sure she takes her "meds" and to mourn her tragic plight.). Jay's common-sense approach is a refreshing relief from both Freudian and biochemical psychobabble about "schizophrenia." Jay treated the so-called patient with dignity. He treated him/her as fully competent, and he pushed the parents to recognize their adult child's competence. Although Haley's methods reflected his own style (which the therapist can modify as radically as she sees fit), his analysis and therapeutic methodology is relevant to every therapist dealing with families with "disturbed young people." Furthermore his methodology can be used with completely different populations-- thus this book should be studied by every beginning therapist. Jay realized that in order to get the young person out of the sick role the therapist has to get them off "medication," off of "anti-psychotics." Jay realized these drugs are mentally dis--abling (now confirmed by Robert Whitaker's new book Anatomy of an Epidemic) and he spoke out against them,again and again--even after family therapy had embraced the medical model(the so-called psycho-educational model) and thus had an excuse to accept their role in helping the psychiatrist to push these drugs. For his entire life Jay courageously and vociferously opposed the long term use of "anti-psychotic" drugs.(As he explains he accepted the use for brief periods under certain circumstances.) Jay was a friend and ally of anti-drugging psychiatrist Dr Peter Breggin, author of Toxic Psychiatry.(And they were both whipping boys of NAMI.) The book also demonstrated Haley's wit and acuity as a social critic. His 8 page witty and insightful (in the tradition of Foucault) discussion of the difference between a therapist and a social control agent should be required reading for all aspiring therapists--or anyone who is paid to work with people. I should warn readers--reading this book may make it difficult for you to adjust to your role in the mental health system today, which is not only oriented toward social control but also toward transforming children AND adults into life-long consumers of psych drugs in order to create and maintain a market for the pharmaceutical industry. Seth Farber, Ph.D. [...]
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book for working with disturbed young people, November 17, 2009
This review is from: Leaving Home: The Therapy Of Disturbed Young People (Hardcover)
Jay Haley is a major contributor and 'big name' with strategic family therapy. This is one of his most important works. As a former family therapist working in a school-based 'at risk' program for teens this is one of the best resources for helping youths with a problem of 'leaving home.'
This book addresses the many disturbances a teen or young adult can have [as well as adults who have not 'left home' due to family issues even in their adult years].
This book addresses many of the common themes of family therapy that addresses the teen who is experiencing various sorts of delinquency, misbehavior, emotional troubles, and angst.
Haley and Cloe Madanes are the two writers that I used the most often. This is one book that you should have in your library.
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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important classic in adolescent psychotherapy, February 11, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Leaving Home: The Therapy Of Disturbed Young People (Hardcover)
This book describes a strategic approach to dealing with very disturbed youth. Published in 1980, it remains a classic in the field.
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