Rewriting Family Scripts Improvisation and Systems Change

by Byng-Hall, John

• ISBN13: 9780898628760
• ISBN10: 0898628768
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-09-22
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

Families can develop self-destructive routines so predictable that members seem to be following a script each coming in on cue as the plot unfolds. Such scripts can be altered, however, when therapists help clients learn to improvise new patterns of relating. This book presents an innovative approach to doing just that--incorporating into therapy elements of script theory and recent findings in attachment research, including those related to narrative. Developing a new attachment concept, "the secure family base," from which individuals can feel safe enough to explore and improvise new scripts, Byng-Hall shows how insecure relationship patterns can be changed both during and after therapy. Jargon-free and illustrated with detailed clinical case material, this book presents a comprehensive conceptual framework that illuminates the central issues of therapy practice with families, couples, children, and adults.

Author Biography

John Byng-Hall is a Consultant Child and Family Psychiatrist at the Tavistock Clinic. He has published widely on topics such as family myths, legends, and scripts; attachments within the family; adolescence; and the impact of chronic illness within the family. He has also presented his ideas at international conferences. He was trained at Cambridge University, University College Hospital London, the Maudsley and Bethlem Royal Hospitals, and at the Tavistock Clinic. He is a past Chair of the Institute of Family Therapy, London.

Table of Contents

Section I FROM SCRIPTS TO IMPROVISATIONS
Secure Enough to Improvise	3	(20)
The Nature of Scripts	23	(18)
Identification across the Generations	41	(16)
Rewriting Family Scripts	57	(19)
A Case Example	76	(25)
Section II CREATING A SECURE FAMILY BASE
Security in the Family	101	(20)
Therapy and Supervision as Secure Bases	121	(16)
Myths and Legends about Security	137	(21)
Resovling Care-Control Conflicts	158	(24)
Resovling Distance Conflicts	182	(18)
Positive Framing of Parenting Scripts	200	(23)
Section III REEDITING SCRIPTS IN CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES
Scripts in Formation of a New Family	223	(21)
Grieving Scripts	244	(14)
Disrupted Scripts: Family Breakup and Disability	258	(15)
References	273	(9)
Index	282