argue, the effective family therapist must consider an individual's particular background in order to understand the dynamics that may affect both the patient's problem and therapeutic response and the family's ability to participate in a program of treatment. McGoldrick and her colleagues (1982) observe, "[Many] therapists have not appreciated the role of ethnicity in developing therapeutic models and interventions . . . [but] problems (whether physical or mental) can be neither diagnosed nor treated without some understanding of the frame of reference of the person seeking help" (p. xv).
The authors solicited chapters from leading therapists that concentrate on the characteristics of 18 different ethnic groups, and the range of these writings suggests how many others might also bear close investigation. The diversity of ethnicities discussed gives a clear indication of the kinds of subtle differences a family therapist should keep in mind. The variations between Puerto Rican families (Chapter 8) and Cuban families (Chapter 9), for instance, show the sorts of contrasts that might be missed in the broader "Hispanic" label. They also indicate that a therapist whose patient traces lineage to the West Indies will probably have at least a slightly different perspective than the patient whose family comes from the Dominican Republic, and such subtleties must be important to any therapeutic approach.
McGoldrick (1982), in her overview which forms the book's opening chapter, notes, "Ethnicity describes a sense of commonality transmitted over generations by the family and reinforced by the surrounding community" (p. 4). Different commonalities define different ethnicities, and, while generalizations can lead to stereotypes, certain consistent patterns do tend to appear within specific groups that help to characterize a culture. Many Asian cultures, for example, prize concern for the society over the kind of rugged individualism t...