Goldenberg and Goldenberg define a family as:
...a natural social system with properties all its own, one that has evolved a set of rules, roles, a power structure, forms of communication, and ways of negotiation and problem-solving that allow various tasks to be performed...(3)
Families can be functional or dysfunctional with dysfunctionality being associated with family members having several characteristics that make it difficult for them to solve problems and/or perform tasks efficiently. According to family therapist, Virginia Satir, these characteristics include: low self-worth; indirect, vague, or dishonest communication patterns; strict, rigid, unbending and everlasting rules; and fearful, placating, or blaming linkages to the larger society (Peterson and Nisenholz 212).
This paper examines the family dynamics of the fictional family in Judith Guest's book Ordinary People which was made into an academy-award winning move a few years back. The presented discussion not only describes the processes occurring within the family but also covers the differential impact of the story as a book and as a movie.
In general, Ordinary People is the story of a family struggling to deal with the accidental drowning death of a teenage son. Calvin Jarrett (played by Donald Sutherland in the movie) and his wife Beth (Mary Tyler Moore) and their surviving teenage son Conrad (Timothy Hutton) are a well-to-do family living in a wealthy Chicago suburb. In response to the accident in which Conrad's brother Buck drowned while the two boys were sailing and the boat capsized, the family is in the process of psychoemotionally falling apart.
One of the first responses we see is that of the mother who has developed what family therapists call "emotional numbing" (Nichols and Schwartz 43). She has become cold, withdrawn from her surviving son Conrad (Buck had been her favorite), and at times behaves in an actively hostile manner bot...