About the Book
Since its original publication, this widely adopted text has been acclaimed as a milestone in the clinical literature. Surveying the vast diversity of family forms, life challenges and value systems in our rapidly changing society, the volume has helped redefine the boundaries of "normal family life" for generations of students and practitioners. This fully revised and expanded third edition once again brings together leading contributors to illuminate the complexities of healthy family functioning across varied structural arrangements and socio-cultural and developmental contexts. Existing chapters have been updated or fully rewritten to reflect the latest theories, research, demographic trends, and clinical practices. Seven entirely new chapters address single parent families, immigrant families, spirituality, family resilience, key processes in marital success and failure, and more.
Table of Contents:
Part I: Overview. Walsh, Changing Families in a Changing World: Reconstructing Family Normality. Walsh, Clinical Views of Family Normality, Health, and Dysfunction: From Deficit to Strengths Perspective. Part II: Varying Family Forms and Challenges. Fraenkel, Contemporary Two-Parent Families: Navigating Work and Family Challenges. Greene, E. R. Anderson, Hetherington, Forgatch, DeGarmo, Risk and Resilience after Divorce. C. M. Anderson, The Diversity, Strength, and Challenges of Single-Parent Households. E. B. Visher, J. S. Visher, Pasley, Remarriage Families and Step-Parenting. Laird, Lesbian and Gay Families. Rampage, Eovaldi, Ma, Weigel-Foy, Adoptive Families. Part III: Cultural Dimensions in Family Functioning. McGoldrick, Culture: A Challenge to Concepts of Normality. Boyd-Franklin, Race, Class, and Poverty. Falicov, Immigrant Family Processes. Haddock, Zimmerman, Lyness, Changing Gender Norms: Transitional Dilemmas. Walsh, Pryce, The Spiritual Dimension of Family Life. Part IV: Developmental Perspectives on Family Functioning. McGoldrick, Carter, The Family Life Cycle. Walsh, Family Resilience: Recovery and Growth Out of Crisis and Challenge. P. A. Cowan, C. P. Cowan, Normal Family Transitions, Normal Family Process, and Healthy Child Development. Rolland, Mastering Family Challenges in Illness and Disability. Part V: Healthy Couple and Family Processes: Mapping the Complexity. Driver, Tabares, Shapiro, Nahm, Gottman, Interactional Patterns in Marital Success and Failure. Olson, Gorall, Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Beavers, Hampson, Measuring Family Competence: The Beavers Systems Model. Epstein, Ryan, Bishop, Miller, Keitner, The McMaster Model: A View of Healthy Family Functioning. Towers, Spotts, Reiss, Unraveling the Complexity of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Family Relationships. Part VI: Social Policy Perspectives: Societal Constructions of Family Health. Hartman, Family Social Policy: Dilemmas, Controversies, and Opportunities.
About the Author :
Froma Walsh, MSW, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Social Service Administration and the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Center for Family Health at the University of Chicago. A member of the Board of Directors of [i]Family Process[/i], she is a past editor of the [i]Journal of Marital and Family Therapy[/i], past president of the American Family Therapy Academy, and the recipient of numerous awards for her distinguished contributions to the field of mental health. Dr. Walsh's authored or edited publications include [i]Strengthening Family Resilience[/i] and [i]Spiritual Resources in Family Therapy[/i].
Review :
"If you think that you are up to date with the changing issues that challenge today's families, read this book and think again! This completely new third edition from Froma Walsh will be exciting for both old-timers and newcomers to family therapy research and practice. The broad and rapidly growing diversity in family life is freshly examined from a systemic perspective. From immigrant families to gay/lesbian families, from behavioral genetics to family social policy, from race to spirituality and beyond, these distinguished authors probe the complex multiplicity of what was once a single model of the family. Truly a great book." - Lyman C. Wynne, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Rochester "Our imperative as clinicians and researchers to reclaim an expansive, layered conceptualization of normal families - in the face of an increasingly narrow and divisive right-wing political agenda - is powerfully facilitated by this sweeping book. Graduate students and practitioners in every mental health discipline will gain a new vision of what it means to be a family in the 21st century, and new respect for family resilience as a reliable partner in any therapeutic endeavor." - Evan Imber Black, PhD, Center for Families and Health, Ackerman Institute for the Family "A wonderful antidote to the typical focus on family dysfunction, Normal Family Processes examines what works in families and what makes them resilient. Froma Walsh has found the formula for an indispensable text: the right topics about today's diverse families, and the best authors to address those topics. This classic text grows better with each edition." - William J. Doherty, PhD, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, University of Minnesota "As in previous editions, the great asset of this book is the deep understanding of its editor and authors regarding the many forms of family life existing today. These writers take a strengths perspective as they see the potential for coping found in different types of families. The coverage of each family form is superb and fully up to date in view of recent scholarly findings. The book can serve as a classroom text in graduate and undergraduate courses in either family life or family practice. Practitioners will also rely on this book as the major reference on families." - Charles Garvin, PhD, School of Social Work, The University of Michigan
