Synopses & Reviews
In a unique comparative ethnography of two family therapy programs, Gubrium deftly shows how differing organizational perceptions make visible the social construction of domestic disorder. Contrasting images of home life--one viewing domestic order as a system of authority, the other as a configuration of emotional bonds--serve to highlight different senses of the family as being out of control and to recommend alternate forms of intervention. The idea that the reality of home life and domestic troubles are embedded in organizational activities and institutional images is an important commentary on the understanding of domestic life and the postmodern family. Out of Control provides stimulating reading for professionals and students in clinical psychology, family therapy, family studies, sociology, and qualitative methods.
Synopsis
Counselling techniques that can help families regain control and causes of families breaking up are among the topics explored in this ethnographic account of therapeutic sessions. Two very different views of what a family is and how it becomes out of control' emerge, resulting in vastly different therapeutic approaches.
Gubrium compares two family counselling facilities - a community outpatient centre and a private family-focused psychiatric hospital - which have radically different concepts of the family. One setting examines a family's system including hidden structures, power relations, language and interaction as clues to the family's dysfunction. The other is concerned with affective relationships and deep emotions, h