A Family Systems Analysis of Dsm‐111‐r

It is proposed that one reason family therapist do not find DSM‐III‐R more useful is that the implicit scientific paradigms of DSM‐III‐R and family therapy are incompatible. Family therapy is identified with the assumptions of general systems theory, while DSM‐III‐R is identified with the assumptions of the medical or objective/descriptive model. An essential difference between DSM‐III‐R and family therapy is that DSM‐III‐R views symptoms as arising from processes occurring within individuals, while family therapy views symptoms as arising from processes occurring within gamily systems. Alternative approaches to classification are suggested which would be more compatible with the approach of family therapy.