Smith ScholarWorks Theses, Dissertations, and Projects 2009 Family therapists' responses to monopolizing, blaming, critical and unempathic behavior in parents Andrew David Sussman Smith College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Sussman, Andrew David, "Family therapists' responses to monopolizing, blaming, critical and unempathic behavior in parents" (2009). Masters Thesis, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/1164 This Masters Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations, and Projects by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Andrew Sussman Family Therapists' responses to monopolizing, blaming, critical and unempathic behavior in parents ABSTRACT This research was designed to address the question: "How do family therapists respond to monopolizing, blaming, critical and unempathic behavior from parents in family therapy. I was interested to see if they viewed the presentation as resistance, narcissism, or was it attributed to something else? I was also interested in the therapist’s background, theoretical framework, training, and how they viewed family interventions. I hypothesized that family therapists would respond to monopolizing, blaming, critical and unempathic behavior in parents in a way that was influenced more by clinical practice experience than theoretical orientation. The instrument was a survey with closed and open-ended questions developed by the researcher. Nineteen clinicians that met my criteria for being a family therapist completed the survey. Nearly half (44%) of the clinicians had more than twenty years of family therapy experience. A significant finding was that family clinicians were influenced by several theories, but tended to adhere most to one particular theoretical framework.