The practice of treating psychological problems in the context of the family did not actually begin until the mid 1950's. However, the developmental roots of family therapy were founded much earlier in social and theoretical changes and developments in the field of psychology. Family therapy evolved out of the reigning paradigm of psychoanalysis and the medical psychiatric model as patients' treatment needs seemed to go beyond the psychoanalytic perspective. Today contemporary cultural influences have embrased treating the entire family as opposed to each individual member.
The earliest approaches to psychotherapy prevalent in the 20th Century focused on individual therapy and the patient-therapist relationship as the best way to treat psychological problems. Leading therapists such as Freud and Rogers believed that while family life does shape one's personality, the most influential and dominant forces controlling human behavior were the internal, subjective beliefs that patients had about their families. Freud and Rogers believed that psychological problems were the result of neurotic conflicts and destructive interactions in one's family of origin and that treatment would be most effective if conducted in isolation from the harmful influences of relatives. Therefore, patients were segregated from their families for therapy and treatment focused on their individual symptomatic behaviors.
The advent of family therapy ushered in a whole new way of understanding and explaining human behavior. Family therapists proposed that psychological problems were developed and maintained in the social context of the family. This new contextual perspective relocated the responsibility for the problems and the focus of treatment from the internal world of the individual patient to the entire family. This shift in understanding human events in terms of interactional patterns of behavior also called for a new way to explain the existence of emotional distress. The biological and psychoanalytic models advocated a causal, linear model of understanding human illness, which emphasized internal dysfunction and failed to take into account the reciprocal nature of interpersonal relations, Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods. Fourth Edition. Allyn & Bacon 1998). Family therapists proposed that psychological problems were best explained in terms of circular, recursive events that focused on the mutually influential and interpersonal context in which they developed.
Several concepts and movements in the field of psychology influenced the evolution of family therapy and shifted the view of life and problems from an individual to a systemic perspective. Among the most instrumental events were studies of small group dynamics, the child guidance movement, social work practices, research on family dynamics and the etiology of schizophrenia, and marriage counseling.
Social psychologists studied small group dynamics in the 1920's to enhance their understanding of political problems and group structure and boundaries. Research by Kurt Lewin led to his conceptualization that a group is more than the sum of its parts and suggested that group discussions were more effective then lecturing in changing behavior and ideas. Furthermore, because interdependence among group members seemed to stabilize maladaptive patterns of behavior, changes in group behavior were brought about only after disrupting the group's accepted habits and beliefs.
Two of the most important concepts of small group dynamics that influence family therapy were: (a) the distinction between the process and content of group discussions, and (b) role theory. Therapists recognized that need to understand not just what the group members said (content), but how these ideas were communicated (process). By focusing on the process of their discussions, therapists can help families improve the way they relate and thus enhance their own capacity to deal with the content of their problems. Virginia Satir expanded on the concept of how individuals behave and communicate in groups by describing several family roles that can serve to stabilize expected characteristic behavior patterns in a family. For example, if one child is a troubled "rebel child," a sibling may take on the role of the "good child" to alleviate some of the stress in the family. This concept of role reciprocity is helpful to understanding family dynamics because of the complementary nature of roles makes behaviors more resistant to change.
Several other aspects of group dynamics contributed to the treatment approaches developed in family therapy, some of which are still used today. These include: acting out familial conflicts with the group instead of discussing them; and instructing individual group members to imagine that the group is their family of origin, with the intention of enabling group members to allow unresolved family and emotional issues to surface and be dealt with in a more objective setting. All of these applications of group dynamics to family therapy involved shifting the focus of treatment from individuals to the group itself, and involved a growing understanding of themes and dynamics common to all members.
The child guidance movement was also highly influential in the history of family therapy. Child guidance clinics were established on the premise that psychological problems begin in childhood and early intervention is the best way to prevent the future occurrence of mental illness. At first, child guidance clinics treated children and parents separately; the family was viewed as an extension of the child. However, it became apparent that treating the child did not make the family's problems go away. Eventually, child guidance workers such as John Bowlby determined that a child's symptoms were usually a function of emotional distress in the family. Bowlby began the transition from individual to family therapy by facilitating communication between parents and children in conjoint interviews.
The field of social work has also made significant contributions to the evolution of family therapy. Social workers often visited clients in their homes and were trained to interview each individual family member to gain as complete an understanding of the family's problems as possible. Many family therapists entered the field of family therapy after being trained as social workers, and their family-oriented training model undoubtably shaped the ideas they brought to the developing field of family therapy.
Gregory Bateson was the leading figure in the schizophrenia research project in Palo Alto, California, which had a strong impact in shaping the course of family therapy. Along with Jay Haley, John Weakland, William Fry, and Don Jackson, Bateson developed a theory of communication to explain the development of schizophrenic behavior within the familial environment. The group hypothesized that symptoms of schizophrenia function to maintain a homeostatic balance in families, and must therefore be a result of interactions among family members.
In 1956, Bateson and his colleagues introduced the concept of the double bind to describe how schizophrenic symptoms could be explained in the context of families. While many of these assumptions about the family's role in schizophrenia later proved to be incorrect, the group's research was a springboard for the developing field of family therapy. The Palo Alto group research project resulted in some of the earliest observations of communication and organization among family members.
Theodore Lidz's investigations of the family dynamics of schizophrenia introduced a new element to the earlier studies conducted by the Palo Alto group. Whereas previous efforts to understand the role of the family had focused on mothers' relationships to their children, Lidz discovered that fathers too had a profound -- though often unfortunate -- influence on the development of symptoms in their children. Lidz found that a large proportion of schizophrenic patients in his studies came from broken homes and experienced destructive relationships with their families, particularly with their fathers. He also observed that the parental marital relationships often did not function as a cooperative unit. Lidz's studies of family dynamics and the interactional patterns that may contribute to symptomatic behavior helped pave the way for family therapy.
Professional marriage counseling is another area of research and clinical practice that contributed tot he development of family therapy. The first institutes for marriage counseling were established in the early 1930's as clinicians recognized the advantages and efficiency of treating married couples in conjoint sessions. This growing appreciation for patterns of relationships in families led to numerous studies on marital conflict and dynamics and the effects on children's development.