The upper-middle-class Jarrett family presents with their son Conrad a late-adolescent parasuicide whose only sibling, older brother Buck, drowned in a boating accident in which the younger brother was also involved. What must be first recognized is that there is no question of Conrad's resisting psychotherapy for the reason that he slashed his wrists. As a parasuicide he would be obliged not only by concerned parents but also by the state bureaucracy to be monitored by a psychiatrist or other psychotherapy professional. What is striking about the psychological intervention to date, however, is that Conrad alone has been sent into psychotherapy and that his parents (Beth and Calvin) have not entered treatment of any kind. The purpose of this research is therefore to set forth an intervention model. The theoretical foundation for this intervention will be Bowen Family Systems Therapy.
The manifest experience of the Jarrett family is that it is the very model of well-balanced togetherness. Calvin's law practice positions the family in material but not particularly ostentatious comfort, which means that financial problems are not at issue in the family. There is also no evidence of adolescent or adult deviance vis-à-vis the social structure, such as substance abuse, in the household. Initial review of the family history suggests that the parents have a pattern of exercising reasonable control and discipline without overcontrolling their sons' behavior, which is (perhaps ironically) supported by the fact that at the time of the accident the brothers were taking a small boat out on the lake by themselves without adult supervision. By the same token, the fatal outing bespeaks a companionate adolescent-sibling relationship. Nor is there evidence in the family history of emotional estrangement, although this report shall return to that point. In sum, then, except for the anomalous parasuicidal behavior, which in a very broad and very super...