Types of psychiatric treatment. Change the family, change the child?

The psychological health and the normal course of development of a child are closely determined by the nature of the security, predictability, and appropriateness of the immediate social environment. For most children, in Western postindustrial culture, this environment centres upon the nuclear family. Over the last four decades there has evolved a psychotherapeutic intervention that takes family life as its subject matter. This is now known, simply, as family therapy. * In its earlier stages it was designated whole family therapy or family group therapy.