Psychiatrists and family therapy: impressions at the interface of ideology and practice

Abstract

The reception of family therapy into a psychiatric profession that during the 50s was inclined to sanctify the individual psyche rather than the system inevitably polarized the profession. Psychiatrists contribute a significant referral imput to family therapy services in public health settings and therefore their knowledge of and disposition towards family therapy are influential elements of the context within which family therapy is practised, (i) This paper, through the use of a questionnaire, addresses qualitatively the prevailing attitudes and conceptualizations of psychiatrists working in the Eastern Health Board, Ireland, regarding family therapy, (ii) It looks at these opinions in the context of recent research findings on the efficacy of family therapy and highlights a famine of concise information regarding specific family treatment modalities, (iii) Finally it looks at the difficult relationship that exists between the old and the new epistemologies, which may be termed the ‘conservative and the impetuous’, and the implications for legitimate research into family therapy in the context of a consumerist-driven health service and at the interface of conflicting ideologies.