Social Justice, Diversity and Salvador Minuchin

In December 1967, Salvador Minuchin’s now classic text “Families of the Slums: An Exploration of their Structure and Treatment” was published by Basic Books at the large sum of $10.00. It reflected the work done by Minuchin and his colleagues during his time as Director of the research unit of the Wiltwyck School for Boys. Later he would become famous as the architect of Structural Family Therapy.  The study was designed to explore ‘the nature of family interaction in impoverished, unstable families of the slums and in the words of its reviewer, E. Mansell Pattison was ‘a very significant book that makes pioneering theoretical and clinical contributions to family therapy’ which had been largely ‘built on the sociology of the middle-class family structure.’

Fast forward 50 years and family therapy continues to run a tension between middle class concerns and the challenges presented by those who are disadvantaged. On 6th May 2021 Yang Teh & Dara Winleyas edited an online paper ‘24 most influential articles on social justice and diversity in Family Therapy: A collaboration between Family Process and the Journal of Family Therapy 1980-2019’. They chose the following working definition ‘With diversity, it means acknowledging and finding ways to appreciate differences. How do we include? How can we be more inclusive? Social justice has more to do with critiques around power and the inequitable distribution of power.’ (Wyatt, 2008 quoting Hardy’s definition) Of 160 papers, 24 were selected using the following criteria: What is the power imbalance identified in the paper, between whom?, How do the authors suggest such an imbalance be addressed? and How well are (1) and (2) being conceptualised?. These fell into 10 categories including Culture-sensitive practice, Gender inequality and power differences, hard to reach families and communities, institutional discrimination, political oppression, racism and violence. The authors conclude “The pursuit of social justice includes incorporating the vast range of experiences of people from all walks of life including income, power, race, gender, sexuality and so forth. We must continue to be outspoken about the injustices and marginalization of the families we work with. Each paper represented here encourages us to examine our own attitudes and belief systems.”

The spirit of Minuchin lives on in family therapy.

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