Family Therapy: The Edge Beyond Homeostasis

Reviews the book, Foundations of Family Therapy: A Conceptual Framework for Systems Change by Lynn Hoffman (1981). This book is a long-needed text. Unlike most of the books in the area of family therapy, this is not a "how to do it" book but a highly successful attempt to depict the evolution and development of a rapidly changing field of knowledge. This book represents a broad, sweeping, and integrated account of the people and ideas that have shaped and are still shaping the direction and form of our understanding and treatment of psychological distress and suffering. It is a full and rich description of the diverse ideas and practices that have distinguished the field of family therapy from other psychotherapies, and it will enjoy the status of being the first major textbook in the field. Readers who are interested in a serious exploration of how we think, know, and understand in the held of family therapy and theories of change will find themselves reading and rereading not only the book itself but the many excellent and well-organized references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)