Family System Theory - Essay Example

The family therapist, as his profession is known by this name, was born in Argentina and the main achievement of the man is in his work of Structural Family Therapy. The main idea of the structure is decipher the kind of relationships that are found among the family members and psychological patterns of each of them. Communication and understanding among the members of a family are deeply influenced by the psychological differences, which are commonly found in them. Salvador Minuchin has tried to come to some conclusions about what are the common types of psychological patterns that can be found in any family.

His researches have helped the sociologists to get solutions to many questions, which were not yet answered before Minuchin’s arrival. (Anderson and Sabatelli, 1999; Minuchin, 1974) Minuchin’s great work Families and Family Therapy begins with an account of a conversation between Minuchin himself and a character named Mr. Smith. What we find in this conversation is Minuchin’s way to solve the problems inside a family. Mr. Smith fails to detect with whom he has problems in the family. It is true that the whole family matter upsets him but he cannot point the individual for whom he feels uncomfortable.

Minuchin’s way of treating people belonging to families is based on the understanding of the situation in which the concerned person is. Nothing can be done without knowing the whole structure of the family where the person belongs. So the basic thing of family system theory is obviously the environment, which has been woven by the contributions of each of the family members. Minuchin shows in his theory that a family man or a woman should never be treated as an individual if someone is trying to solve the family problem.

In these cases the man or the woman is actually a part of a social group, which is well defined. A family can be taken as the unit for the society and this is why treatment basing