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Paradigm and Pathogenesis

A Family-Centered Approach to Problems of Etiology and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders

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Family Interaction and Psychopathology

Part of the book series: Applied Clinical Psychology ((NSSB))

Abstract

During the last 15 years, David Reiss and his associates have explored ways in which the family develops and maintains its own, distinctive convictions about reality. They have focused their work on differences among families in their conceptions of the safety or danger in the world, the families’ belief about whether the world treats the family as a group or as isolated individuals, and the novelty or familiarity that the families experience in their environment. These explorations have been guided by an evolving theory of family process; currently, the most familiar concept in this theory is the notion of the family’s paradigm, which refers to the underlying assumptions about reality that, in any family, are presumed to be shared by all members. The research has used a variety of objective and quantitative methods for studying the family. The best known of these methods are laboratory, problem-solving procedures, although questionnaires, field observations, and structured interviews have also been used. This approach has aimed at understanding the family process in clinical families as well as in those who have never sought help for psychological distress or problems in relationships among members. In the course of this work, a number of important clinical phenomena have been analyzed: family correlates of psychopathology, the processes by which families engage in treatment programs, families’ support networks, and families’ response to stress.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Center for Family Research, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, 20037, USA

    David Reiss

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

    David Klein

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  1. David Reiss
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  2. David Klein
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Theodore Jacob

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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Reiss, D., Klein, D. (1987). Paradigm and Pathogenesis. In: Jacob, T. (eds) Family Interaction and Psychopathology. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0840-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0840-7_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0842-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0840-7

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