ext presents first of all as an exercise in acknowledgment and clarity. Awareness that one is deliberately concealing what is being felt may be a significant hurdle, and admitting what cannot be concealed is another. Both dynamics seem important to address with the Jarretts. In a more general sense, even without the loss of Bucky and the attempted suicide of Conrad, the family can be seen to present or comport itself as an ideal unit in terms of social expectations; however, the presentation hides an emotionally fragile and unbalanced environment informed by a powerful anger and suspicion or lack of recognition of real affection. The superficiality needs to be exposed so that authentic emotion does not take each family member by surprise. Thus it would be important to reassure each family member that the therapy environment is a place of safety that is meant to reach emotion but that will not punish anyone who shows it.
The inciting events that dislocate the Jarretts is the death of Bucky and the attempt by Conrad to commit suicide. However, those are only what could be called the manifest events. Another event, related to the other two, is equally important: Conrad's survival of the sailing accident. The fact that he survived is a source of guilt for him, also bound up with guilt that he was unable to save his brother, but it is a source of anger for Beth. If one of her sons had to die, why couldn't it have been Conrad, who was not her favorite and who does not slip into that place with Bucky gone. Conrad senses Beth's feelings but does not confront her directly, and in any case she denies them. The fact that Calvin has seen his role in the family chiefly in social terms--the provider, the success in business, etc.--and not in emotional terms has dislocated him given the loss of Bucky. He and Beth alike appear to have been content to live out their family life as if material success and physical beauty and comfort were its c...