Family Therapy: Who Should Be Treated

Abstract

When illnesses and disorders develop within our personal communities, our consciousness usually makes use of a little trick. In our minds, we tend to set up two groups: those who caused the problem and those who are suffering because of it. Of course, we usually include ourselves in that second group. The others are the villains; they are the troublemakers, the sick ones, the ones who are making up stories. This dichotomy has a lot going for it. It makes the tangled net of problems seem clear and distinct; one’s own position is protected. Medical science used this trick, too. It groups people into patients and people who accompany the patients to the doctor’s office. But the limitations of this view are illustrated in the following episode: