Family Therapy Workshop with Maurizio Andolfi, M.D., Montreal, Quebec, April 12-13, 1984. par Vincenzo F. DiNicola, M.Phil., M.D.
In Journal of strategic and systemic therapies, Vol. 4 (1985), n° 13
1 Resident in Psychiatry, McGill Universîty Faculty of Medicine ; Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry ; 4333 Cote Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Canada
Summary
Dr. Maurizio Andolfi presented « Behind the Family Mask, » a family therapy workshop in Montreal, April 12-13, 1984. Andolfi gave an overview of his relational approach to therapy, using provocation, metaphor and humour as therapeutic to 01 s . He had been called an integrationist and demonstrated his skill in live consultations as a pragmatic and creative clinician. Speaking to the heart of the workshop theme, Andolfi defined rigid family systems and their defensive masks. Andolfi’s group in Rome bas elaborated a masterful approach to entering the family system, getting behind the family mask, without provoking insurmountable resistance. The origins of this active, creative and sometimes theatrical style in Italian schools of family therapy is traced to cultural traditions. Ando lf it ‘s consultation with an Italian immigrant family with an elective mute child provided the image of an acoustic mask. Discussion of the case highlights the symptoms of mutism as a response to the family’s stuckness and ambivalent status as cultural outsiders. This in turn exemplifies some problems of immigrant families and therapy with bilingual families and therapists.
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