Bowen, C., Stratton, P. and Madill, A. (2005) Psychological functioning in families that blame: from blaming events to theory integration. Journal of Family Therapy, 27 (4). pp. 309-329. ISSN 1467-6427
Abstract
Blaming events in therapy were used as a focus for discussions with family therapists in order to examine their construal of the therapeutic process when working with families who blame. Interview transcripts were used as data and this was analysed using a qualitative methodology, with a view to building a theoretical model. We present an exploratory model that allows therapists to position their therapy within a broader framework of psychological approaches. When prompted by a video-clip of blaming from the therapy setting, therapists tended to categorize current difficulties in terms of fear and control issues from past relationships and consequent underlying beliefs, and they also described the resultant negative outlook as a direct challenge to therapist idealism. Interestingly, the two themes that emerged from the interview data with the most categories and quotes were ‘unhealthy allocation of responsibility for problems’, which is arguably the main source of overt blaming, and ‘family identity and cohesion’, so often a point of contention during therapy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2005 The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice. An author produced version of this work will be freely available from November 2006. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) > Leeds Family Therapy and Research Centre |
Depositing User: | Repository Officer |
Date Deposited: | 15 Aug 2006 |
Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2016 06:42 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2005.0325.x |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Blackwell Publishing - Published on behalf of The Association for Family Therapy |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/j.1467-6427.2005.0325.x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:1494 |