Summary
Contents
Subject index
In a unique comparative ethnography of two family therapy programs, Gubrium deftly shows how differing organizational perceptions make visible the social construction of domestic disorder. Contrasting images of home life—one viewing domestic order as a system of authority, the other as a configuration of emotional bonds—serve to highlight different senses of the family as being out of control and to recommend alternate forms of intervention. The idea that the reality of home life and domestic troubles are embedded in organizational activities and institutional images is an important commentary on the understanding of domestic life and the postmodern family. Out of Control provides stimulating reading for professionals and students in clinical psychology, family therapy, family studies, sociology, and qualitative methods.
Restoring Hierarchy
Restoring Hierarchy
The counseling process and its supervision are full of talk: counselors talking to family members; family members and significant others conversing with each other; counselors, interns, and consultants deliberating over domestic disorder and the treatment process. There is talk about talk, such as whether a counselor's depiction of home life “tells it like it is.” The term counsel itself connotes a process of deliberative instruction intended to affect another's judgment or behavior.
Yet, there is something decidedly nondiscursive about staff members’ sense of what confronts them in the counseling process. Although they “process” or sort through information of various kinds, from talk to behavior, demeanor, and interpersonal environs, the activity is all about what they behold in the counseling situation. Staff members also ...
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