THE MARGINALIZATION OF FAMILY-THERAPY - A HISTORICAL AND CONTINUING PROBLEM

Family therapy, and marital and family problems, are marginalized in t he larger fields of mental and physical health care, which is a misfor tune both for family therapy and for other mental health professions. The early family therapists, who had multidisciplinary backgrounds, at tempted to establish a new, nondisciplinary paradigm and also tried to expand the perspectives of the more traditional mental health discipl ines. More recently, family therapists have exerted greater efforts to establish marriage and family therapy as a differentiated, autonomous profession. These alternatives each involve dilemmas for the family t herapy field. The positive side of becoming a distinctive profession i s greater internal strength and clear professional identity; the downs ide is the threat of increased marginalization in relation to other pr ofessions, a tendency toward intellectual isolation, and hence restric ted opportunities for invigorating new challenges. Family therapy now needs to develop new modes of interchange, collaboration, and selectiv e integration with other health care professions. Such interchange wil l be beneficial both to family therapy and to other professions.