Sam Shepard and the dysfunctional American family: therapeutic perspectives
Article Abstract:
The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard is well known for his dramas concerning family tensions and the breakdown of the American family. Since the mid-1970s, the themes of his plays have tended to concern social issues that involve the status and structure of the family in modern America. The success of his plays indicate that the dramas reflect fundamental truths about American family life, as well as significant changes in the purpose and function of the family in recent decades. By way of example, Shepard's 1976 play, Curse of the Starving Class, is interpreted by the authors in light of recent critiques of the dysfunctional American family. The play involves the lack of communication among four members of a family living in a Western farmhouse. The father is an alcoholic, and none of the other family members seem to believe in the value of maintaining their disillusioned and indigent family. While Shepard is also discussing the impact of societal changes, such as the increased American emphasis upon materialism and the subsequent loss of familial goals, his psychological insights are instructive for therapists who wish to gain an understanding of the ways in which families respond - or fail to respond - to the changes in society. The play, essentially about a family losing its cohesiveness, is analyzed in terms of several psychotherapeutic concepts: differentiation - the family members have lost their sense of who is who; boundaries - there is ambiguity about family roles; marital disintegration and parental ineffectiveness; uprootedness and family isolation; family identity, goals, and moral purpose; and intergenerational legacies - the 'curse' of the beliefs of previous generations. Shepard's treatment of the American family raises a number of critical issues that are important reminders to family therapists to look not only at the internal forces that can destroy a family, but at the larger cultural contexts. Cultural shifts cannot always be readily accommodated by a family unit that is dysfunctional at its core. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: American Journal of Psychotherapy
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0002-9564
Year: 1990
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Informed consent as a framework for treatment: ethical and therapeutic considerations
Article Abstract:
Recent emphasis upon the notion of informed consent, whereby a physician or therapist is expected to explain to his patient the details and risks of pursuing treatment, has put many therapists in a dilemma. On the one hand, this process increases patient education and shared doctor-patient responsibility, while on the other, the therapist may have to accept a larger number of patients. The authors contend that, in the psychotherapeutic setting, informed consent is not simply an ethical or legal obligation, but a mechanism for enhancing the therapeutic process itself. Three cases are presented in which informed consent was utilized therapeutically to set the limits and scope of therapy, alleviate anxiety about its effects and processes, and create empathy while easing conflicts. Openly discussing uncomfortable aspects of the therapy itself can build trust in a resistant participant. Thus, the individual may suppress his own reluctance to engage in therapy which is ultimately in the best interests of other family members. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: American Journal of Psychotherapy
Subject: Psychology and mental health
ISSN: 0002-9564
Year: 1989
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