Wheeler, Wilbur F.

English

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The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 37 | Number 1 Article 31February 1970Book Review of Psychiatry, the Clergy, and PastoralCounseling, editors, Dana L. Farnsworth, M.C. andFrancis J. Braceland, M.D.Wilbur F. WheelerFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationWheeler, Wilbur F. (1970) "Book Review of Psychiatry, the Clergy, and Pastoral Counseling, editors, Dana L. Farnsworth, M.C. andFrancis J. Braceland, M.D.," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 37 : No. 1 , Article 31.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol37/iss1/31ation's war · in Viet Nam and cocktail parties; which elicits a negative · dis-course on affluent youngsters who have . everything handed to them and don't know what it was like to have only one pair of pants during the depression. These exchanges can go on as long as the participants can last, or be interrupted at any point that either ceases . the probably irrelevant counter-reaction to the other's ir-relevant statements. If the parent just can't stand the "new look" he may just have to avoid it by withdrawing from the scene and declining to be seen with it. The more dysfunctional the family and the more disturbed the offspring, the more the parents de scribe themselves as helplessly reacting. Rarely do they see Junior as reacting to them at all. The plaint goes, "Doctor, that is the problem. He doesn't care, nothing we say or do affects him at all." Some are able to test out the hypothesis I put forth -that Junior is rea.cting to them in direct . quantitative proportion to their reaction to him, and the power is on their side to boot. This can be demon-strated by disengaging. Withdrawal, silence, cool courtesy may be re-actions, but if used as active measures to interrupt a · useless pattern the change spoils the stereotyped ex-change. The situation is like that described in the old joke - he chased her till she caught him. The distance between most twosomes is fixed all along, and if one retreats the other advances. I suggest that this can be usefully tried by most parents on their . <Own offspring after frrst noting how much of the time the parent has been initating ex changes, particularly nega-tivi exchanges, with the adolescent. Of couTse , if the child is really all bad , I gu~ss t -10. parent might better just wash his h~m ~ of the whole mistake. I withdrew om treatin'g one family in 58 which the mother reported, after two weeks of thought, that she couk no think of one good thing about he1 daughter. Book Review . .. PSYCHIATRY, THE CLERGY, AND PASTORAL COUNSELING Lastly, I am concerned about w 1at l · see as a growing trend in the fn nilJ Edito~s: Dana L. Farnsworth, kJ.D .. and movemeht toward separation ron Franc'! J. B~acela'!d, M.D. Publisher. _St. medicine. The medical model if d~ ·~hn s Un~-~er;:b Pres:,9.6..£01.$~t~~~~~~ avowed, the illness model is c illec .unnesota XIII, . pp. J. • m . pathogenic with the implication th~ b(ltdback, $3.50 m paperback. the less medical one is, the 1 :!Ue! '7sychiatry, the Clergy and Pastoral any counselor. Priests will note that con-. family therapist one will become Tb Counseling" is a collection of 26 essays by fidentiality in counseling is not identical attackers are medical but the nofr. 17 of the nation's outstanding psychiatrists, with the seal of the confessional. medical 'disciplines can hardly disi gree ~ of. whom ~e ~ast Pre_si~ents o! . the Here too we see process _:_ sud Aanerlcan Psychiatric Assoctati~n. O~al-, . . these essays were lectures, m a slightly attacks by family ther~plsts en- if;;nt form, given over a period of years courages more study of family th rap} the psychiatric-pastoral workshops of the by non-physicians who are tht i en- of Mental Health at St. John's couraged in their contention that witl , in Minnesota. proper training, they are equally tll~ fied to treat psychiatric problerr; ; an that medical training is not onl r necessary, but detrimental. bright students and adherents help to reinforce the preference for non-medical model, and so it around. If this trend grows, v. e crease the chances of integratin . ~ , the catecholamine hypothesis essay is a complete unit in itself, and read without reference to the others. there is a unity and an orderly qement binding all of them together so that they are rightly called chapters. the chapters contribute to the two-purpose of the book as stated in the · ... "(1) to furnish the clergyman counselor with a summary of basic about human beings and their and (2) to illustrate how a ·studies of the family process pression; we return to eit dichotomies, the body-mind duauo•~ :.·u•• between clergymen and and psychologists was organ-maintained." ADDITIONAL READING 1. The journal, Family Process, pu twice a year, offers a varied selec ion people and ideas. 2. Bowen, Murray. The use of theory in clinical practice. Comr Psychiatry, vol. 7, no. 5, (Oct.) 19 56, 345-374. 3. Bell, J. Family group therapy. \\ ton, US Dept. of Health, Educati Welfare, 1961. Public Health Mo no. 64. 4. Satir, V. Conjoint family therapy . Alto , Calif., Science & Behavior 1964. 5. Ackerman, N. Treating the family. New York, Basic Books, 1966. first 5 chapters are more or less IOCttactorv. One of the best chapters in in this section: chapter 3, on puu~uque11 of Pastoral Counseling". Otapters 6 through 13 deal with prob-of people in various age groups: adolescents, adults, the middle the elderly, and the dying. next 10 chapters concern matters on parishioners · or their relatives seek from the clergyman: depression, the paranoid parishioner, alcohol-various aspects of sex, marriage and the unwed mother. · last 3 chapters are in a different and might be called miscellaneous. UDill<letttiality" is of prime concern to ,1970 "Schools of Psychotherapy" gives a brief but very good summary of the best known schools of contemporary psychotherapy. The fmal chapter;· quite fittingly, is about "Community Mental Health and the Future of Pastoral Counseling". If a clergyman were to ask me for the best bGok on p~toral counseling, without any hesitation I would reply that this is it. In the frrst place, the authors are among the best psychiatrists in the entire country. Then too, the editors have selected the subjects that the clergy at the St. John's workshops have asked about most frequently. The authors have not set themselves up as authorities on theology or even morality. But they have offered the benefits of psychiatric insights into the problems that are most frequently brought to the clergy. One of the many things I liked about the book is that none of the authors ever forgot that he was writing for clergymen. They did not address them as though they thought clergymen would become pSychotherapists or auxiliary psychiatrists. While this is true, it is also true that others besides clergymen can benefit from this b ook: social workers, youth leaders, teachers, school counselors, and others. The chapters are so short that they can i:.e J. ;td at one sitting. The longest chapter is ,22 I> ·.e • Most of the others are only half tftat 1< :?;. ,1 l'he hardback edition sells for $6.SO, ... but t ,;<Jre is a paperback edition for only _$3.50. ~. Rev. Wilbur F. Wheeler 59 

Book Review of Psychiatry, the Clergy, and Pastoral Counseling, editors, Dana L. Farnsworth, M.C. and Francis J. Braceland, M.D.

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Book Review of Psychiatry, the Clergy, and Pastoral Counseling, editors, Dana L. Farnsworth, M.C. and Francis J. Braceland, M.D.

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