Clifford J. Sager

Family Story Technique Changes in Interactions and Affects During Family Therapy

Summary The Family Story Technique (FST) was used to explore changes over the course of brief family therapy. Family interactions showed varied and interesting changes, including a reduction in hostility between mothers and children and a more realistic view of family relationships. Affect Related Condition scores suggested a decrease in projected Anxiety and an increase in Anger on the part of adult females as well as a reduction in childrens projected Guilt. The FST appears to be a useful modification of the TAT for use in clinical work and research with families.

The Family Story Technique and Intrafamily Analysis

Summary The Family Story Technique (FST) was devised because of its promising versatility in the assessment among family members of affect, interactional patterns, and outlook on the future. The FST makes use of ten selected TAT cards and a modification of Fines scoring system. Reliability of scoring in terms of per cent agreement between two scorers was found to range from 67% to 100% for usable categories. Potential usefulness of the FST in family diagnosis and family patterning of interactions is illustrated by a case presentation of family FST scores.

The conjoint session in marriage therapy

ConclusionThe conjoint session in the treatment of persons who are married is designed to use the intense emotional feelings that exist between the partners. The situation provides transference, regressive and defensive phenomena that are readily available for therapeutic utilization. Treatment is essentially for one or both partners, secondarily for the marriage. As the conjoint session epitomizes the problems that arise when a therapist undertakes to treat both marital partners by any method, this type of session was discussed in some detail.The demands on the therapist in conjoint therapy are great. He is the witness of irrational and hostile feelings which frequently exceed in intensity those that emerge in individual psychotherapy or analysis. There is a greater amount of emotional interplay than may occur in either individual or group therapy. It becomes very easy to identify with one marriage partner against the other and thus reduce or eliminate the therapists value to both persons in the marriage. However, the opportunity presented to the marriage partners in this triadic setting is a valuable one. The therapeutic leverage afforded by the dynamics of the marriage relationship can immeasurably increase the chances of helping both individuals as well as their marital relationship.