The author characterizes the underlying assumptions, convictions, and
beliefs that each family holds about its environment as the family
paradigm, citing the evidence for the family paradigm gleaned from the
laboratory study of how families solve problems. He suggests that a
family's health depends on the conservation of its paradigm; pattern
regulators and ceremonials are two types of family routine that conserve
the paradigm. When the paradigm is threatened with collapse, three stages
can be delineated: the emergence of rules, the explicit family, and
rebellion and action. Each last stage can propel the family toward
dissolution or self-healing.Abstract Teaser