Ethnicity and family therapy

Abstract

Ethnicity and Family Therapy is a comprehensive collection of articles that addresses ethnic issues in family therapy, and it is apparently the first such collection to be published.It is divided into three parts: (1) the conceptual overview, (2) the paradigms, and (3) the special issues.The paradigms includes nineteen chapters on different cultural groups, combining, in varying degrees, historical, cultural, socioeconomic, and demographic information with a discussion of appropriate treatment methods, often illustrated by case vignettes.The authors are professionals in the mental health field -social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, plus one anthropologist.The study of ethnicity has been late in coming to professional schools, and sometimes has been incorporated in the curriculum.Because the literature on ethnicity is so sparse, it is always a pleasure to greet a good new book on the subject.After reading Ethnicity and Family Therapy, I saw more clearly how ethnic understanding might be applied to family therapy.Yet, as I read, I had an uneasy feeling that these "simplified pictures of the cultures, 'snapshots' frozen in time" (McGoldrick, Pearce, and Giordano 1982:xv) could also perpetuate cultural stereotypes.The authors, too, had this uneasy feeling, admitting that these snapshots could be misused (xvi).Anyone with a modicum of exposure to other cultures knows that a good many Chinese and Puerto Ricans do not lower their eyes to avoid direct eye contact, nor do all British Americans serve roast beef to the family on Sunday.We all probably know Irish who do not drink heavily, Italians who do not eat heartily, and Greeks who do not run restaurants.And many WASPS are lazy and show no initiative whatsoever, nor are they all optimistic -many, in fact, commit suicide.Of course, all Asian cultures cannot be lumped together, as they are in the chapter "Asian Families."James Green, a cultural anthropologist, describes (1982:9) two broad categories of explanatory models to account for ethnicity: those explanations that focus on categories of behaviors and traits, and those that approach ethnicity in a "transactional" way, focusing on strategies for defining and preserving cultural differences.Categorical approaches tend to pigeonhole, while transactional approaches study ethnicity as one of the ways that people find meaning in communication.In Ethnicity and Family Therapy, Falicov, writing about Mexican families, notes the problem with a categorical approach: