Tilting at Windmills: A Response to Irving and Williams

Abstract

A paper which makes its case in forthright, not to say strident, terms (Irving and Williams, 1995) is to be welcomed when much academic writing tends towards the bland and equivocal. It can be assumed this kind of approach is intended to stimulate counter-argument.I write as one whose academic interests have been to examine the relationship between theories and models which inform our understanding of people and how they can be helped, and as a practitioner whose work is informed by a combination of family systems, humanistic and pychodynamic principles. As such, I find myself compelled to respond to a number of Irving and Williams’ arguments and assertions. This is not from a conviction that family systems theory is without limitations, but derives from the need to identify confusion in the paper which might unintentionally mislead readers and thus deprive them of an additional framework which has, in my view, considerable utility when it comes to understanding the contextual factors associated with psychological difficulties presented in an individual.