Salvador Minuchin, Biography Of The Creator Of Structural Family Therapy

Salvador Minuchin is a reference in the structural model of family therapy. This Argentinian psychiatrist and pediatrician is known for his charisma and professional dedication. The contributions they left us through their work have been immense. Indeed, they allowed us to better understand the dynamics and the daily challenges of the family.

When Minuchin passed away in 2017, he was almost 100 years old. No shady people associate his name with that of such important figures as Sigmund Freud, B. F Skinner and Carl Rogers. He was a pioneer as a therapist. On the other hand, he has been able to propose innovative techniques to provide help to children in the family context. According to him, without the family, it is impossible to understand the origin of some symptoms.

He tells us about aspects as interesting as the alliances between family members. Indeed, it teaches us how power is exercised, but also where submission comes from in this scenario. Salvador Minuchin was a psychiatrist with exceptional ability to allow, among other things, to bring out the emotional component. So, as he explained then, he could better work on stresses, traumas, injuries and unmet needs.

Salvador Minuchin was an architect who reconstructed family structures. He knew how to get in there to sense the dynamics that fuel pathological processes. Later, through very directive interventions, he succeeded in inducing the appropriate changes, always placing the children in the most detached position, as valuable interlocutors.

Salvador Minuchin, biography of a family therapist

Salvador Minuchin was born in Argentina in 1921. He studied medicine at the University of Cordoba and graduated in 1948. Later he spent a few years in Israel as a doctor in the army. After this experience, he decided to move to New York to study psychiatry.

There he also trained as a psychoanalyst at the William Alanson White Institute. This will allow him to work as a child psychiatrist in the Wiltwyck children’s prison. It was during this decisive period (the one between 1954 and 1962) that Minuchin decided to make a change in the classic therapeutic approach:

• He has developed a type of therapy in which it is necessary to include the families of children, with emphasis on this dynamic system
• Thus, it made it possible to ensure that each situation could be observed by the rest of the psychiatrists thanks to a room with a one-sided mirror.
• All the therapists were therefore able to learn from each other and improve their techniques.

Through these innovative dynamics, Salvador Minuchin ended up developing structural family therapy.

Work with Jay Haley and the Child Guidance Clinic

After formulating his new theory in the field of family therapy, Minuchin moved to Palo Alto, California. There he worked with Jay Haley on the Child Guidance Clinic project . This famous therapist was one of the founders of Brief and Family Therapy and the mentor who helped him profile and deepen his innovative approaches.

• From this joint work was born the book Families of the slums  (1967)
• In this book, Minuchin first described his theory of family therapy based on the structural model. He later succeeded in setting up his most important project: the Child Guidance Clinic in Philadelphia, an establishment he founded and managed for almost 10 years.

In 1981, he left his post of director to create the Family Studies Institute . There, he will teach both therapists and families how to improve education, but also how to optimize education processes.

Salvador Minuchin died on October 30, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida.

Salvador Minuchin’s theoretical contributions in the context of family therapy

His work in Wiltwyck Children’s Prison was essential in developing his theoretical model. He realized, for example, that there was no point in focusing all the work exclusively on these young people. Indeed, once rehabilitated, they reoffended and returned to the penitentiary.

Below, we present Salvador Minuchin’s theoretical contributions to family therapy:

• It is not useful to focus exclusively on the patient without considering the context, i.e. the family
• By including the close context, we can better understand this invisible link full of meanings which determines the life of the child.
• Pathological behaviors tend to persist very often as an effect of family dynamics

The goal of Salvador Minuchin’s therapy

The therapeutic objective in Salvador Minuchin’s structural model consisted of understanding the interactions existing in a concrete family system in order to transform them. For that, it will be necessary to seek to improve the behaviors and the relations of the members of this family by considering the child or the adolescent as a protagonist.

The family as a dynamic entity and as a sense of the identity of the person

One of the postulates which articulate Minuchin’s theoretical model is that the family is a dynamic entity in perpetual motion:

• Therefore, the therapist must not only focus on the interaction of this group of people, but also understand the changes, explore the past and investigate those processes that configure the current situation of this scenario.

• Thus, we understand that the family gives a sense of identity to each member.
• In these interactions, power games, domination, submission, etc., cause each person to end up adopting a specific position.
• However, another phenomenon also appears: the desire for separation and individualization, which is inherent in all adolescents.

Diagnosis of the family structure

When making the diagnosis of the family structure of a child or adolescent, the therapist should focus attention on the following aspects:

• Limits
• Subsystems
• The evolutionary cycle of the family
• Family alliances and coalitions
• The hierarchy of power
• The degree of flexibility in the face of change
• Sources of support and stress

To conclude, this Argentinian psychiatrist and pediatrician also left us such important works as La recuperación de la familia (“The improvement of the family”, in French) and  Caleidoscopio familial (“Family kaleidoscope”, in French). Or Técnicas de terapia familiar (“Family therapy techniques”, in French). His work is highly regarded by academics and experts in social justice. But also by family therapists and all those who want to improve the lives of children and their nearest environment.

We cannot forget that by taking an interest in families, we can promote a more dignified future. Healthier and happier. In this task, Salvador Minuchin was one of our best models.

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