adults despite adverse early experiences, has led some investigators to ascribe little if any significance to experiences in the early years (Kagan 1984).
The contemporary psychodynamic model incorporates the models of both continuous and discontinuous development. As Mitchell (1988) proposed, early experiences result in patterns of interaction that will be repeated in different forms at different times over the years. Present family interactions merely maintain patterns of behavior initiated in the past.
Emotionally Focused Therapy
The expression of affect in family and marital therapy can be loud, excessive, and defensive and can often conceal rather than reveal the significant issues. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Has proposed an intelligent framework to concentrate on affect to enhance the treatment process and reduce the disruptive impact of defensive affects. The therapist focuses early in therapy on the expression of affects that are usually defensive, self-protective, and accusatory toward other family members. The exploration of such affects in a manner similar to defense analysis can lead the therapist to the discovery of soft attachment affects that are the roots of the relational dissatisfaction. Emotionally focused therapy is based on the application of attachment theory in family therapy.
Goals
the primary goal of psychodynamic family therapy is similar to those of other family therapy approaches that attempts to create a more highly functioning family unit, free from enduring conflict and inhibitions. As such, the family can enhance the maturation of all family members, particularly children. Psychodynamic family therapist subscribe to the principle of resolution of presenting problems, enhanced self-esteem in family members, flexibility and adaptability of family roles, tolerance of difference among family members, clear boundaries and lines of authority, and balanced sharing of the power in the family. However these therapist also place a very strong emphasis on personal maturity and individuation in family members. This reduces the likelihood of projection of inner perceptions based on past experiences on other family members, or responding to distorted projections of other family members in a shared pathological way. From this point of enhancement of maturity and individuation, psychodynamic family therapist and practitioners of Bowen’s family system theory are closely tied. Both school of thought agree that family members need to take the following steps in family therapy :
1. Develop of sense of self that is both differentiated and internally integrated (Meissner 1978)