How Good Is Family Therapy? A Reassessment

Robert B. MacIntyre is head of the Centre for Relationship Therapy and
Education in Orangeville, Ontario.

As the authors report, there is considerable interest in family therapy
and treatment of a variety of social and psychological problems in the
context of the family. In this review of the literature, Roy and Frankel
try to confine their scope to family systems therapy, which is the
dominant general mode reported in the literature. The authors also focus
on outcome research of the sort that has some quantifiable elements. Not
surprisingly, they find that much of the published work in the field
does not meet the criteria of good research from the viewpoint of
scientific theory testing. Their conclusions include suggestions for
necessary research directions.

This book is useful for its comprehensive literature review and
therefore will probably be of most interest to those in academic and
research settings. Practising family therapists or families
contemplating family therapy are likely to find the scope of the book
limiting. The emphasis on research-methodology issues and refinements
precludes a simple answer to the question in the title.