The Intense Experience of Family Therapy (Perennial Library)

How wonderful to have the perspective of the therapist in session. This classic gives us the forces that direct clinical choices in the moment. I gained a better understanding of the process of experiential Family Therapy. Thank you Napier and Whitaker.

This is a very readable tale about a slightly dysfunctional family and the therapist who beats them up. If a counselor acted like this today, he'd be in jail for assault and battery. Regardless, the story illustrates some key techniques in family therapy and is a quick read.

A pastor I worked with loaned me the book a number of years ago, maybe 5 and it totally explained the situation with my son and his family and two daughters. I wanted to to read the book again and have a copy for my library. I believe this is the crux of many of the problems that are being blamed on the kids, when in reality it is about the issues between the parents. Thanks for asking.

The reading was interesting; though the case was drawn out and the book could have been thinner by about 25 or so pages. Napier goes in circles at times and one begins to feel that he and Whitaker are only using pages to make the case seem bigger than it was.

Pretty strange philosophy behind the authors' psycho-therapeutic methodology. Not sure why this is required reading for many psych graduate programs except that the weird team approach of Napier and Whitaker have sparked some interesting controversy.

This book was assigned reading for my Family Case Seminar class in my counseling psychology master's program. I picked up this book, and could not put it down. Mr. Napier is invited to join the great Carl Whitaker as a co-therapist for a family who is in crisis. He takes us into the therapy room and gives us a blow by blow account of several sessions throughout the course of the therapy. We get to see the family dynamics, and watch them shift as healing occurs. The author becomes transparent, letting us in on his thoughts and feelings as he participates in the therapy. Dr. Whitaker's interventions are often unconventional and surprising.
I really cared about what was happening to the members of the family as the book progressed. The book begins with the family concerned about the daughter's acting out behavior, and her battles with the mother. We find that the conflicts between the parents and their children were used as a way to hide from their own conflicts within the marriage. The children literally took on their parent's problems. When the adults became more involved with solving their problems in the marriage, the children felt less burdened and their behavior shifted. The story of this family is told in a refreshingly honest manner.

I was required to read "The Family Crucible for my Master's program. First, I have to say that it is well written and is refreshing to be able to read a book like this for class. The writer engages the reader and keeps it from getting dry. The book follows one family through therapy as the therapists work to sort out the problems with this family. There are some "in-between" chapters to help describe why the therapists are doing what they are doing so it is almost like a story with some commentary.

It is interesting to think that just in the 1950, bringing the entire family into a therapy session was almost like blasphemy in the therapeutic world. Thankfully those who believed in family therapy fought for it and it is now recognized as being more legit and this book does a good job at giving an idea of what family therapy would be like.

There are many concepts of therapy that I found appealing. Instead of taking the usual "let's blame the troubled teenager for the family's problem" the two therapists take a deeper look at the interactions and subconscious signals that are being sent back and forth by the family members. Such things as the father being overly engaged with his job, which upsets the mother, who takes it out on her daughter, who then rebels, are brought to the surface. The book makes a point to reveal that the family system is much more complex than just one of the children acting out.

The therapists also become interested in the parent's relationship with their own family of origin and demonstrate how those relationships can be affecting the current marriage. After reading this book one can examine their own family interactions and perhaps locate some of the problems that are going on.

There were a few things that I didn't quite agree with in the book. One is that the therapists are very quick to assume what exactly the interactions of the family are. They would then make these suggestions and the family would agree with them. The problem is, the power of suggestion can influence how things are being looked at. Secondly, the book talking about affairs and how they are subconsciously arranged by both people in the marriage. This may be the case sometimes, but there are other times where this isn't the case. The authors seemed rather dogmatic with their position on how to interpret the interactions of the family.

This is a good book for anyone looking to go into the field of therapy, or even for some people who are trying to understand the interactions of their family better.

I first read this gem many years ago, long before I became a therapist myself. What an eye opener! Even reading the first Chapter (it's all of 11 pages) is enough to get you thinking in a fresh way about family problems. It certainly worked that way for me.

The book really is about Carl Whitaker, M.D. Augustus Napier was his understudy. Whitaker worked within the idea of family-as-a-system without limiting himself too much with theory. This allowed his methods to evolve as he treated more and more families. And it allowed a book like this to be written: lucid because it makes so much sense, dramatic because so much happens in the family whose treatment it describes, hopeful because it shows how much impact family therapy can have.

It wasn't that he didn't know theory. It's that as person he was intuitive, following his gut time and again, and eventually coming out with some guidelines for other family therapists, such as: -The therapist doesn't control the content of a family session, but she or he does control who will be there (this is dramatically dealt with in the first few chapters), -The therapist can cause change by stirring things up and getting family members to look at problems freshly, and -The therapist's job is to re-vision the problem as a communication that is somehow functional.

Typical is Whitaker's view that often the "identified patient" in the family is a stand-in for some other problem that the family cannot face without the help of a therapist.

Since this great book was written family therapy went through a boom time, was very popular. Then it became integrated into what is often called multi-modal therapy, in which family members sometimes come in individually, sometimes in small groups (ie the parents one time, the children another), sometimes as a whole. Still, it is necessary to understand family systems in order to work this way.

People looking into therapy will find this a great explanation of family issues that otherwise may seem baffling. It might also be a motivator to treatment.

Therapists trained individually will find this a fine introduction to working with families. They will also benefit from reading other luminaries in this field.

This is an insightful and engaging read.
Everything is wrapped up in the complex dynamics of the family. Napier and Whitaker take the approach that 12-year old daughter is having some issues, then bring the whole family in and conduct therapy on them as a family. The problems of the individual are so deeply intertwined with the problems of the family.
Napier and Whitaker do a bang-up job at presenting the material. This could have easily been a book of boredom filled with psycho-babble dry academic lifeless trifle, but no, it's not. Instead "The Family Crucible," makes the point of family therapy by telling a story, an extended case study. We follow along with the family of five as they show how one member's problems is related to the family. The therapy shifts from daughter to son to parent-interaction with daughter and son, and finally the couple's marriage that really is at the heart of the issue. The good docs even go so far as to call in the grandparents to get at some real issues the family is dealing with.
You begin to care about this family seemingly as much as Napier and Whitaker do, and you want the best for them. Along the way, the authors share their poignant view on family dynamics and also, somewhere along the way...there's a reader epiphany. There's the oh, there's the yes, there's the "that explains it." In our ever growing quest here on this earth to live together and understand humanity and the humanity we call family and live with day to day, this book goes miles beyond any expectation.
Get your hands on, "The Family Crucible," and talk with your family about it. I know, I am.

Carl Whitaker is known as one of the founders of family therapy in America. He had a style that could be described as "innovative," "intense," and sometimes "irrational."
Reading this book can help someone learn more about Whitaker's unique brand of family therapy, but more important than that it can help people learn about the process of family therapy and about their own family dynamics.
The reader should be able to identify with at least one of the family members in the book and empathize with their situation. In so doing, the reader is able to do some of their own "therapy" without having to pay a family counselor.
I often recommend this book to persons that I see in counseling and those that read it have come back with glowing reports.

During my family and couples therapy class in grad school one of my teachers recommended this book to me. I couldn't put the book down since it was so interactive and gave an account of what actually happens in family therapy. Despite same, this book was written during the 60s and should be read as a reference, not as a factual book of what happens in family therapy currently. Many of the family dynamics and triangulations will take place during therapy but don't expect the therapist to be so directive. Today, clients are helped by the therapists to arrive to their own insight and own it. Many of these techniques can be grounds for malpractice today. This book is the perfect example of experiential therapy theory which focuses on a freewheeling intuitive approach aimed at puncturing pretenses. Today, family therapy uses more of an integrative approach (i.e. using different techniques of family & couples therapy, such as CBT, solution focused, Bowenian, etc).

I read this book for a university abnormal psychology class, and it provided a welcome contrast to the way we viewed human behaviour for most of the semester. Typically, psychology classes at my college have focused on individual factors causing psychological distress, but of course, family systems therapy views problems within the family system. Napier describes in depth his therapy with one family from beginning to end, and supplements his explanations of the family systems model and his and Whitaker's therapy techniques with examples from other families they have had in therapy. The book actually reads like a novel, and Napier's explanations make the entire process seem clear and reasonable. Even if you don't agree with the family system model, by the time you finish reading this book, you will at least have a much better understanding of it.

I read this book for a university abnormal psychology class, and it provided a welcome contrast to the way we viewed human behaviour for most of the semester. Typically, psychology classes at my college have focused on individual factors causing psychological distress, but of course, family systems therapy views problems within the family system. Napier describes in depth his therapy with one family from beginning to end, and supplements his explanations of the family systems model and his and Whitaker's therapy techniques with examples from other families they have had in therapy. The book actually reads like a novel, and Napier's explanations make the entire process seem clear and reasonable. Even if you don't agree with the family system model, by the time you finish reading this book, you will at least have a much better understanding of it.

The Family Crucible is outdated and not that engaging. I did not enjoy the psychologists' approach to therapy whatsoever - psychoanalysis is not evidence based and blames everything on your family and unconscious instincts instead of giving you any tools to help yourself. I found Napier to be sexist and arrogant. You should probably read this if you're interested in therapy, but I would really encourage you to be critical about what you're reading instead of just taking it all in at face value.

We used this book in a MFT class recently at UCCS and I found it to be quite insightful in understanding the dynamics of family systems. The book covers one family through a long therapuetic process. Even though this book was written in the early 1970's and has a few outdated techniques, the scope of therapy, witnessing the impact of illuminating family-of-origin issues and having an intimate view of the personal agony therapy forces people to work through was very educational from a student counselor perspective.

Are you a parent having trouble understanding your kids? Are you having trouble understanding your parents? This book may not reflect your unique problems, but will shed light on problems encountered in many families from which you can draw conclusions about your own problems. Best of all it does it in an easy-to-read, almost novel-like approach without all the big word, professional type verbage found in many psychology texts. You'll see how each player in the family, even the one who seems most innocent, is working to manipulate things to their liking -- sometimes consciously, sometimes not.

Awesome book about family therapy. Am studying for Masters in Family Therapy so this is perfect vicarious way to look behind the scenes (inside the therapists heads) as they enter disjointed world of the subject family. They share what they are feeling, thinking and why they do what they do. An excellent example of whatworking with a co-counselor is supposed to be like. Dynamics of all the Relationships exposed in easy to follow honest terms.

The Family Crucible is MUCH more than a review of the tecniques involved in family therapy. It is an invaluble resource because every family, not just those in critical situations, undergoes stress, change, and conflict. I would not describe this as a "how-to" book. Rather, it's an "ah-hah" book - it would be impossible to read this without seeing some aspect of your family in the pages. VERY insightful as well as just a good read.

This book literally rocked my world. It was recommded by my psychotherapist and proved to be so incredibly helpful in understanding the multi-generational shaming process passed down through my family. I now have the courage to ask my family to stop spapegoating and judging me! And to simply accept responsibility for their own issues.

Napier's self-reflections as well as his piecing together a fascinating case study makes this book an inspiring, if a little dated, read for those considering or heading into family and marriage therapy.