Chapter 8, Weaning Parents from Children Summary and Analysis

Haley begins this chapter by explaining that the way therapy is conducted has progressed in a leap. Erickson signifies the change from recognizing that problems within a family are just that. Individuals who exhibit symptoms and are the one to turn up at a therapists, or in severe cases, to be institutionalized are typically not the entire or actual problem. The 19th-century method was simply to treat a patient on an individual basis. The therapists noticed that there was something else going on; here Mesmer and Freud are used as examples, in cases where one or more parents would interfere or remove the patient from therapy once improvements were effected. Erickson in the 20th century insists on addressing the actual problem and asserts the right to include other individuals who are part of...