From Irreverence to Irrelevance?: The Growing Disjuncture of Family Therapy Theories from Social Realities

The author believes that family therapy theory and practice has become further and further removed from the changing economic and political realities of professional practice as well as to the worsening everyday social realities of the many millions of potential clients that the field purports to serve. New theoretical developments, while offering new perspectives through which therapists may view their work, remain decidedly apolitical, decontextualizing therapists and therapy from the larger social and cultural milieus. An open examination and thorough discussion of these changing realities is proposed as a partial antidote to the increasing irrelevance of the field.