Book Reviews : Family and Marital Psychotherapy
| Published date | 01 September 1979 |
| Author | Huw Rees |
| Date | 01 September 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057902600313 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
105
symbolic
formulation
of
values,
especially
those
of
mutual
social
accountability.
He
quotes
Nils
Chris-
tie’s
definition
of
courts
as
&dquo;arenas
for
moral
evaluation&dquo;
and
Norval
Alorris’
idea
of
prison
being
&dquo;expia-
tive&dquo;.
How old
are
new
ideas,
and
how
uncertam
are
they?
Can
we
know
whether
&dquo;environmental
design&dquo;
to
prevent
situational
crime
will
be
more
invisibly
controlling
and
damaging
for
non-offenders
also?
Is
Schur’s
&dquo;radical
non-intervention&dquo;
better,
or
is
it
escapism
as
Sue
Walron-Skinner
sug-
gests
in
her
new
important
book,
Family
and
Marital
Psychotherapy?
Finally,
is
criminology
yet
suffi-
ciently
reliable
as
a
science,
wise
enough
as
cne
of
the
humanities,
or
sensitive
enough
as
an
art
for
us
to
do
other
than
lament
its
limitations
and
work
at
our
own
professional
reforms
cautiously
if
urgently,
setting
a
model
for
others
to
do
the
same,
with
piece-
meal,
pragmatic
pluralism.
YVONNE
CRAIG,
JP
A
Theory
of
Communication
and
Use
of
Language
Per
Saugsted
Global
Book
Resources
£6.85
This
book
should
be
helpful
in
con-
tributing
to
discussions
about
the
application
of
psychological
theory
in
social
work
practice.
It
is
written
from
the
stand-point
of
a
philosophi-
cal
psychologist.
It
is
vt~orthwhile
because
basic
processes
in
verbal
and
non-verbal
communication
still
re-
quire
a
considerable
amount
of
fur-
ther
work,
and
this
book
contributes
to
that
objective.
The
book
is
based
on
the
supposi-
tion
that
language
and
communica-
tion
are
central
in
understanding
society
and
social
interaction.
It
deals
with
the
activities
of
perceiving,
re-
membering,
imagining,
thinking
and
communicating.
The
author
gives
a
fundamental
place
to
understanding
communications
from
others
(Chap-
ter
13),
referring
to
the
possibility
that
they
can
have
more
than
one
intrepretation.
He
points
out
that
social
interaction
and
communi-
cation
are
not
synonymous:
it
is
often
not
possible
to
say
what
is
being
communicated
when
people
interact.
Sometimes
people
cannot
verbalise
their
experience:
Saugsted
refers
to
the
interaction
between
the
baby
and
the
mother.
The
communication
prob-
lem
is
greatest
in
the
face
of
extreme
experiences.
Over
three
years
ago
a
review
article
in
Justice
of
the
Peace
(May
15th
1976
p.266)
discussed
the
link
between
depression
and
crime
and
referred
to
probationers
who
are
in-
adequate
ard
depressed.
This
was
not
always
obv:ous.
Saugsted’s
book
is
relevant
hera.
He
argues
that
it
is
not
easy
to
say
when
understanding
occurs
and
that
research
could
profit-
ably
investigate
this.
Summing
up,
this
is
not
an
easy
book
to
read,
partly
because
of
translation
prob-
lems,
but
it
does
seem
to
be
an
im-
portant
one
for
social
workers
and
probation
cfficers.
PETER
R.
DAY
Family
and
Marital
Psychotherapy
Edited
by
Sue
Walrond-Skinner
Routledge
&
Kegan
Paul,
£4.75
&dquo;Family
therapy
has
come
of
age&dquo;
seems
to
be
the
message
of
this
book.
In
the
last
fifteen
years,
interest
has
grown
from
a
trickle
to
a
flood;
there
are
now
several
institutes
specialising
in
the
promotion
of
it
and
the
prac-
tice
of
family
therapy
has
spread
from
clinics
and
hospitals
to
the
statu-
tory
agencies
including
the
Probation
Service.
Some
warning
voices
have
been
raised
too--drawing
attention
to
the
past
infatuation
of
social
workers
with
casework,
group
work
and
lat-
terly
community
work.
The
fear
is
that
family
therapy
may
be
seized
on
in
the
same
uncritical
way,
seen
as
the
universal
panacea
and
used
in
inappropriate
ways
in
situations
which
do
not
warrant
it.
This
book
will
go
some
way
to-
wards
allaying
those
fears.
In
a
short
review
it
is
not
possible
to
do
justice
to
all
the
contributors,
but
the
issues
raised
indicate
a
mature
and
catholic
approach
to
the
subject.
Readers
are
made
aware
of
the
issues
confronitng
teachers,
practitioners
and
researchers.
Frude,
for
instance,
contributes
a
very
useful
discussion
on
concepts
of
the
family
and
what
might
be
called
the
anti-family
school,
referring
to
family
involvement
in
the
onset
of
psycho-
logical
illness.
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