The Field of Family Therapy - GAP Report (PDF)

The Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry has given the Bowen Center permission to make this classic available for download and purchase from our website. This 94 page report was written in 1970 by their Committee on the Family which included Dr. Bowen and other pioneers in the development of family theory and family therapy.

It includes a questionnaire that surveyed approximately 320 therapists. In addition, the Committee on the Family then developed an A to Z scale to distinguish between those therapists or "schools of therapy." Position A family therapists tend to see family therapy as one method of treatment while Position Z therapists see view it as a new way to understand and thereby treat the family relationship system. The Position M therapists, the large majority, were eclectic, used a mixture of approaches depending on which fit best with the family situation.

The distinctions made in the Report are just as accurate today as they were when first published. The Field of Family Therapy will help students of Bowen theory become more aware of the difference that theory makes in thinking and clinical practice.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Individual Versus the Family

The Therapist's Route to Family Therapy

The Family's Route to Family Therapy

The Slow Growth of Family Therapy

Goals and Indications

Diversity of Goals

Contraindications for Family Therapy

Conceptual Framework

The Origins of Family Theory

The Future of Family Theory

Techniques and Practices

Problems in Conducting Family Interviews

Premises about Family Therapy

Approaches to Family Treatment

Illustrations of Differing Premises in the Family Field

Ethical Issues in Family Treatment

Value Conflicts in Family Therapy

Secrets and Confidentiality

Privileged Communication

Epilogue

Bibliography of Marriage and Family Therapy

Family Therapy Questionnaire

Norman L. Paul,  Joseph Satten, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, Kurt O. Schlesinger, Murray Bowen, John P. Spiegel, David Mendell, Lyman C. Wynne, and Israel Zwerling.