Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication: An Appraisal of Pharmland

by Phoebe S. Prosky (Editor), David V. Keith (Editor)

Overview

Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication critically and passionately explores the concepts and practices that constitute the interface between family systems based psychotherapy and modern biological psychiatry. This diverse collection of essays, eight by psychiatrists, is neither for nor against medication, but takes a skeptical view of the unquestioned dominance that medication-based treatments have achieved among mental health practitioners. Its viewpoint is that therapeutic attention to context and relationships, regularly diminished when medications are prescribed, interferes with the development of psychiatric disorders, adds to maturity, and expands consciousness. Clinical examples, by both practitioners and patients, are used to define potential problems that arise from trying to combine a medical model with family systems work and also illustrate the decision-making processes and methods for applying family systems based therapies. This book will stimulate thoughtful conversation among students and practitioners of all mental health disciplines.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135953201
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	334
File size:	897 KB

About the Author

Phoebe Prosky, MSW, studied under family therapy pioneer Nathan Ackerman, MD, and worked and taught at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy for fifteen years. Moving to Maine, she founded a family therapy training center and clinic which incorporates the spirit of Ackerman's work, embodied in an approach which emphasizes the conscious use of intuition and alternatives to the use of medication in the teaching and practice of family therapy.

David V. Keith, M.D. holds joint appointments as Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics at the State University of New York, Health Science Center at Syracuse. He is also the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of Family Therapy. Dr. Keith's special interest is in the impact of relationships on health and illness. It is this interest which guides his teaching, academics, and clinical work in family therapy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments. Introduction. Part I: Introductory: Setting the Stage for an Exploration of the Interface of Family Therapy and Medication.  Keith, Biometaphorical Psychiatry: Family Therapy and the Poetics of Experience. Prosky, When More is Less: A Common Difficulty in Collaborative Treatment of Human Distress. Auerswald, Family Healing and Planetary Healing: Three Paradigms in Search of a Culture. Part II: Theoretical: Dilemmas and Contradictions in the Approaches of Family Systems Therapy and Psychopharmacological Practice. Freeman, Psychobiological Family Therapy: Toward an Ecological Psychiatry.  Pakman, A Systemic Frame for Mental Health Practices. Schaefer, Medicating the Ghost in the Machine. Ducommun-Nagy, Can Giving Heal? Contextual Therapy and Biological Psychiatry. Mei, Rethinking Illness.  Part III: Political: The Mechanisms Behind the Accelerating Growth of Psychopharmacological Practices.  Duncan, Miller, Sparks, The Myth of the Magic Pill. Beder, Gosden, Mosher, Pig Pharma: Psychiatric Agenda Setting by Drug Companies. Part V: Seeking Health: Clients Describe their Experiences with Family Therapy and Psychopharmacological Treatment. Dyer, The Headache. Messalink, Love of a Lifetime. Davis, The Therapy That Almost Wasn't, or Imaginary Therapy. Part IV: Clinical: Systems-based Practices as Alternatives to the Use of Medication. Flynn, Expert Therapist-beginning Therapist. Begel, The Jazz Consultation: Improvisation in Family Therapy. Ford, Goldilocks and the Three Bears Revisited. Benda, My Journey with Allison in Wonderland. Yaroshevsky, Bekiaris, Deficit of Attention Disorder. Auerswald, Thinking about Thinking in Family Therapy.

Editorial Reviews

2 Stars from Doody

Reviewer: Debra Klbecka, MS (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This is a collection of essays from various authors that present the use of family systems theory in the practice of present day psychiatry. The main argument is over how psychopharmacology is used and perhaps misused in treatment of mental illness when other alternatives need to be included in a family setting.
Purpose: According to the editors, the goal of the book "is to help readers appreciate the complexity of their living, and make the ambiguity and pain of human experience more bearable, more intriguing, and more productive of creative and enduring change." The purpose is to present systems-based theory as an alternative treatment for mental illness.
Audience: The book is written for clinicians, students, and lay people, according to the editors. However, most of the essays are written at a level that may make it difficult for some lay people to comprehend.
Features: The book is divided into five sections. It starts with an explanation of what was behind the concept of the book and some important chapters that are worth the readers' time. The next section provides some theoretical approaches of family systems theory with and without the use of psychopharmacology. The chapters on the pharmaceutical industry provide the reader with astonishing figures. The last section presents several different examples of systems-based practices as alternatives to pharmacology, including using jazz musicians who interpret the family session through music. Most of the essays use clinical cases to illustrate their points, which I found to be most useful. The shortcoming of the book is how the systems-based theories can be used to provide measurable outcomes and cost effectiveness, like it or not, in our managed healthcare system.
Assessment: I took the editors' suggestion and skipped around and read various chapters in each section. I found myself somewhat angered by the approach to the medical model in psychiatry. Many of the chapters are very negative about the use of psychotropic medications, yet not quite informative enough about why systems theory would be more beneficial. The effect is similar to witnessing a political debate in which the candidate can only talk about why the opponent is wrong for the office.

Doody's Review Service

"Highly experienced practitioners of family therapy...Should be of interest to anyone in the health field." — Psychiatric Services
"Reading this book was a refreshing and stimulating experience.

The editors did a remarkable job in bringing together 24 different voices (contributors) to elaborate on and provide multiple and different vistas of the core book's theme.

I think that any person who reads this book will broaden his or her level of awareness of contemporary issues defining the diagnosis and treatment modalities offered in the mental health field and in medicine in general.

This book is extraordinarily relevant to the current crisis in the mental health field and medicine in general.

I highly recommend this book for all mental health therapists and physicians, particularly those working in psychiatry and primary-care settings.

It is my sincere hope that others enjoy the "poetic experience" of reading this book in the same way I did.
." — Jose Bayona, MD, MPH, University of Texas—Houston Medical School

From the Publisher