Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication: An Appraisal of Pharmland (Paperback)
Family Therapy as an Alternative to Medication critically and passionately explores the concepts and practices that constitute the interface between family systems based psychotherapy and modern biological psychiatry. This diverse collection of essays, eight by psychiatrists, is neither for nor against medication, but takes a skeptical view of the unquestioned dominance that medication-based treatments have achieved among mental health practitioners. Its viewpoint is that therapeutic attention to context and relationships, regularly diminished when medications are prescribed, interferes with the development of psychiatric disorders, adds to maturity, and expands consciousness. Clinical examples, by both practitioners and patients, are used to define potential problems that arise from trying to combine a medical model with family systems work and also illustrate the decision-making processes and methods for applying family systems based therapies. This book will stimulate thoughtful conversation among students and practitioners of all mental health disciplines.
Phoebe Prosky, MSW, studied under family therapy pioneer Nathan Ackerman, MD, and worked and taught at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy for fifteen years. Moving to Maine, she founded a family therapy training center and clinic which incorporates the spirit of Ackerman's work, embodied in an approach which emphasizes the conscious use of intuition and alternatives to the use of medication in the teaching and practice of family therapy. David V. Keith, M.D. holds joint appointments as Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and Pediatrics at the State University of New York, Health Science Center at Syracuse. He is also the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of Family Therapy. Dr. Keith's special interest is in the impact of relationships on health and illness. It is this interest which guides his teaching, academics, and clinical work in family therapy.