Normal Family Processes, Second Edition: Growing Diversity and Complexity

"A comprehensive, in depth, positive look at normal family processes." --Cherry L. Saenger, M.S., Mars Hill College, Mars Hill, North Carolina "Diversity and breadth of what constitutes a family, focus on normality." --Ester Rodriguez, Arizona State University, College of Nursing "It addresses all the issues that face the contemporary American family." --Michelle Fabian, University of Iowa, Communication Studies "Has the magic blend of all great textbooks. Conceived with love for the subject and delivered with care for the reader, it is lucid, substantive, comprehensive, organized, and astonishingly up-to-date. Walsh and her exceptional contributors offer the perfect centerpiece text for any course on what real families are really like." --Richard Chasin, MD "This superb book is the best currently available one-stop shopping source for current thinking about the myriad approaches to defining normality in families. Whether one is a family researcher, a family therapy clinician, or a student of family process, this volume provides you with a vast breadth of information, and it does so in an unusually well-organized and comprehensive fashion." --Peter Steinglass, M.D., Executive Director, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy, Editor, Family Process "Froma Walsh's Normal Family Processes, 2nd Edition should be required reading for all who care about strengthening families....She addresses the thorny issues of family normalcy without ignoring external contexts that remain complex--job pressures, racism, gender issues, economics, poverty, illness, disability. She also addresses the reality of diversity in divorced, remarried, adoptive, gay and lesbian, ethnic and dual earner families....The focus on external influences makes this book unique and compelling because it is the context in which families must live, more than an Ozzie and Harriet normalcy, that determines which families remain resilient and which will break. I recommend this book highly for all who are interested in the survival of families." --Pauline Boss, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Minnesota "Unusually rich....Each page is crammed with information. The very best contributors have been selected and they show us their best work. It is certain to be used by clinicians and scholars for a long time to come." --Donald A. Bloch, M.D., Editor Family Systems Medicine, Director Emeritus, Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy "This is an exceptional book. It reveals the complexity of normal family processes better than ever before. Scholarly, yet lucid and enjoyable, it will become a requirement to understand the multiple versions of the contemporary normal family." --Celia Jaes Falicov, Ph.D., University of California San Diego "In Normal Family Processes, Froma Walsh and her contributors provide the perspectives and knowledge that help us avoid our biases and the limitations of our own experience. In doing so these contributors reflect passion, and compassion, toward real families as they exist today....This work is essential....Its effects will be felt far beyond courses in family functioning; it also will impact the very nature of clinical intervention, family research and education, and public policy. It is not recommended reading; it should be required!" --James Alexander, Ph.D., University of Utah "A classic book from the early 80's becomes a classic for the 1990's. This new edition defines the cutting edge of the family systems understanding of families. The chapters are scholarly, practically useful, and engagingly written--an unbeatable combination. An extraordinary overview by Froma Walsh in the context of the first chapter introduces a consistently engaging and valuable series of chapters by leaders in the field. Froma Walsh has once again set the gold standard for meaty and accessible books on family processes." --William J. Doherty, Ph.D., Family Social Science, University of Minnesota "Academics will find it an invaluable text for teaching about family diversity. Practitioners will be able to use the text, particularly part three, as a resource for exploring family specific issues. In sum, the book is an excellent volume likely to join its preceding edition as a classic in the field." - -Families in Society "Walsh successfully provides a family systems foundation for the difficult task of defining family normality and health." -- Contemporary Psychology , .."text contains arguments and evidence that families of diverse forms can and do funciton effectively. The volume provides invaluable information for clinicians as they treat diverse families." -- Contemporary Psychology "I highly recommend this volume." -- Family Forum "Academics will find it an invaluable text for teaching about family diversity. Practitioners will be able to use the text, particularly part three, as a resource for exploring family specific issues. In sum, the book is an excellent volume likely to join its preceding edition as a classic in the field." -"-Families in Society" "Walsh successfully provides a family systems foundation for the difficult task of defining family normality and health." --"Contemporary Psychology" .,."text contains arguments and evidence that families of diverse forms can and do funciton effectively. The volume provides invaluable information for clinicians as they treat diverse families." --"Contemporary Psychology" "I highly recommend this volume." --"Family Forum "