In the past few decades there has been increasing recognition of the crucial importance of the family as a basic, essential ingredient of normal psychological growth - basic to the very definition of the human individual. As psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have come to look at the family as a highly significant psychological and social unit, they have realized the need to evaluate and treat the individual within the family as a whole. Now this volume from the prestigious American College of Psychiatrists brings together outstanding leaders in the field of family research and therapy to focus on the family as an interacting system which may promote or inhibit the growth of its members. These experts not only detail specific procedures for evaluating the healthy and dysfunctional characteristics of families from different perspectives, but also demonstrate intervention methods and techniques which have been effective with disturbed families.