GROUP PSYCHOTHERAPY OF HUSBAND-WIFE COUPLES IN A CHILD GUIDANCE CLINIC*

Abstract

That the role of each parent is important is a truism in our culture. It has been continually emphasized that the interpersonal situation in the family may be crucial in furthering or hindering the child's normal maturation, or in contributing to possible pathology. Yet in a vast majority of cases, at least as judged by experience in child guidance clinics, it is only one parent - generally the mother - who seeks therapeutic aid relating to disturbances in parent-child relationships. These disturbances, of course, also frequently indicate marital difficulties in varying degrees. Generally, too, there is an over-emphasis on therapeutic attention to the mother or child exclusively - the father being interviewed for diagnostic purposes only - which is not due merely to the reluctance of the male. The awareness of the need for direct aid in the father-child relationship exists, but on the one hand, there is an apathy regarding the father's potential for obtaining aid, and on the other, it is taken on faith that either the mother or the child will be the purveyor of the benefits that may be derived, and that basic modifications in the emotional climate in the home will ensue.