The Saigon of the Family's Mind: Family Therapy With Families of Vietnam Veterans

Unlike other wars, Vietnam was America's first teenage war. This has caused unique problems in dealing with the Vietnam veteran, as exemplified by the Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although the bulk of the work done on PTSD has indicated the likelihood of veterans establishing disengaged families, it has been the author's experience that the families of Vietnam veterans often have enmeshed parent‐child ties between the veteran and his children. When the children become adolescents, their quest for individualization throws the family into turmoil which has its genesis in the father's own foreclosed identity. A five‐stage method of treatment (Intake, Ventilation, Bridging, Education and Hiking the Therapy Home) is proposed by the author as being a sound method of family treatment in this growing family problem.