The author presents basic differences between the approaches of family
therapy and of the individual therapies on three dimensions: personality
development, symptom formation, and the approach to producing therapeutic
change. Family therapy bases its view of these factors in psychotherapy on
the idea that they are determined by the family's functioning as an
interderdependent transactional unit; the individual therapies base their
views of these factors on the idea that they are determined by the dynamic
intrapsychic functioning of the individual alone.Abstract Teaser