Readers will be reminded that, however big and impressive the theories, family therapy is very much a human endeavor. Hoffman revisits the experiences, ideas, and relationships that have informed her journey and presents them both as she perceived them at the time and as she perceives them now looking back. Through this process of reflective conversation, she creates not only a legacy out of the people and situations that acted on her most powerfully but also a countertradition to the strategic approach that influenced her so strongly early in her career But this is not just history....

Of all the therapeutic modalities in force today, none shows greater promise for dramatic personal change than the fast-growing field of family therapy. Yet no discipline is more lacking in a unified theoretical framework.Now, in this brilliant new work, Lynn Hoffman, noted therapist and, with Jay Haley, author of Techniques of Family Therapy (Basic Books, 1968) provides the much-needed synthesis that weaves together the diverse themes and concepts around which family theory and therapy have evolved. Sweeping in its coverage, solidly researched yet consistently lively and readable,...

For this book, Lynn Hoffman has not only compiled her writing for the last ten years, but she has written her own commentary about the personal and intellectual journey which led her from one paper to the next. The papers themselves read like a chronicle of the major ideas of the past ten years, but her commentary sheds a new light on the process of learning. It enables the reader to understand the way one woman has listened to the voices of a changing environment, and listened to the changes in herself in order to expand her thinking and her practice as a therapist.