Cross Cultural Family Systems

Course Objectives:

1. To familiarize students with theories of culture, kinship, and family systems and an interdisciplinary approach to the study of these topics.
2. To explore and evaluate the family systems approach to family therapy and ministry within a cross-cultural context.
3. To enable students to assess their own familial and cultural backgrounds using tools from the course in order to formulate culturally sensitive and knowledgeable approaches and practices of family ministry and therapy.

Please read the following prior to the first day of class:

Edwin H. Friedman, 1985, Generation to Generation, Guilford Press.

Chapters 1-8 (pp. 11-190)

            This is a classic, practical text that combines family systems theory with specific instruction for religious leaders and their congregations (note: it is written with Jewish and Christian communities in mind.  I hope those coming from different traditions will think critically and share how this text may or may not address other religious communities when it comes to family therapy).

In addition, please read EITHER:

Anne Fadiman, 1998, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

            This is a popular work of ethnographic nonfiction that details the clash of cultures between a Hmong family and the medical community in Los Angeles.  Though it overtly deals with themes of medicine and religion, please read this ethnography with specific attention to the Hmong culture of family life and its interactions with Western cultures.

OR:

Jean L. Briggs, Never in Anger, 1970, Harvard University Press.

            This ethnography of an anthropologist’s experience living with an Inuit family describes how emotions, relationships, and family structures vary culturally.

Other REQUIRED texts for this course:

McGoldrick, Monica, Ed.  1998.  Re-Visioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture, and Gender in Clinical Practice (First Edition).  The Guilford Press.

Spradley, James and David W. McCurdy.  2008 Edition.  Conformity and Conflict.  Pearson Education, Inc.

Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. and Marvin K. Mayers.  2003.  Ministering Cross-Culturally.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Press.

Suggested texts for further reading:

Bowen, Murray.  1978.  Family Therapy in Clinical Practice.  New York: Jason Aronson.

Gilbert, Roberta M.  2006.  The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory.  Leading Systems Press.

Kerr, Michael E. and Murray Bowen.  1988.  Family Evaluation: The Role of Family as an Emotional Unit That Governs Individual Behavior and Development.  New York: Norton.

Kramer, Jeanette R.  1985.  Family Interfaces.  Brunner-Routledge.

Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. and Marvin K. Mayers.  2003.  Ministering Cross-Culturally.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Richards, E. Randolph and Brandon J. O’Brien.  2012.  Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible.  Inter-Varsity Press.

Richardson, Ronald W.  2005.  Becoming a Healthier Pastor: Family Systems Theory and the Pastor’s Own Family.  Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress.

Smith, David C.  2009.  Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

Assessment Expectations:

30% Reflection Papers (3):  Each student will submit a reflection paper on one of the required texts on the first day of class.  This paper should do three things: 1) summarize the major points of the reading; 2) assess the reading’s engagement with the concepts of culture, family life, and family therapy or ministry; and 3) offer critique of the reading’s treatment of culture, family, or therapy and/or a personal engagement with the text as it relates to one’s family history, culture, and/or practice as a religious leader in a particular religious community.  The paper should be three pages double-spaced.  Please follow HTS’s guidelines for paper-writing and use MLA citation style.  This paper will account for 10% of the student’s grade.

Each student will submit a genogram of his/her extended family, as well as a two-page reflection on how culture impacts his/her family unit.  This assignment will be further explained on Day 2 of the course and will be due on Day 3 in class.  This assignment will account for 10% of the student’s grade.

Each student will submit a three page double-spaced reflection paper at the end of the course (5:00 pm on Saturday).  In this paper students will assess the deconstruction of theories of kinship and family systems and articulate their own theoretical (and if desired, theological) propositions for contemporary and practical approaches to family therapy. This paper should engage with two or more texts or class activities, and make a comprehensive argument about anthropology, culture, kinship, family therapy, and/or ministry.  I will give further direction regarding this paper throughout the course.  This paper will account for 10% of the student’s grade.

30% Class Participation and Attendance Policy:  Because this is a week-long intensive course, you must read Friedman and one of the ethnographies prior to the first day of class in order to be prepared to grasp the topics of the course and discuss them in class.  You are required to attend every class period and to provide significant contribution to class discussion by reading the materials required beforehand, asking questions, offering comments, taking notes, and participating in all class activities.  I’ve done my best to keep nightly reading to around fifty pages so that students can complete the reading in a timely fashion and prepare for each class.  Missing one class session will result in an automatic lowering of your final grade by 10%.   Missing two or more sessions will result in automatic failure of the course.  Please speak to me if you anticipate conflicts with the schedule, and realize that because this is an intensive week-long course you are required to attend each full session.

40% Final Paper:  Please use the tools in this course to write a 10-12 page double-spaced term paper that expresses your knowledge of culture, family, and family therapy, and describes how your own cultural-familial background influences your study and/or your ministry.  Your paper can take a more theoretical approach to the topics of culture, kinship, and family, or you can provide a more practical approach of how the various studies in this course will shape and impact your ministry to diverse people groups.  Whatever your approach, please utilize texts from the course (you may include additional research, although this is not required, and your primary argument should engage with texts from he course), craft a coherent thesis statement and orderly framework for your paper, include a personal reflection on your own cultural-familial background, and a bibliography.  Again, this paper should demonstrate personal, academic, and professional applications of the material in the course, as well as a sound engagement with the key texts and topics covered by the course.  I encourage students to visit me during office hours to discuss final paper topics.

Office Hours (by appointment, please email eraffety@princeton.edu): 

Sunday, January 13^th, 3:00-5:00 pm

Tuesday, January 15^th, 7:00-8:30 am

Wednesday, January 16^th, 5:00-7:30 pm

Saturday, January 19^th, 5:00-7:30pm

I will be available, by appointment, to meet with students who have concerns or questions prior to, during, and following the course.  I encourage you to make an appointment prior to the course or during so I can get to know you, and we can talk about your goals and expectations for this course as it applies to academic and professional pursuits!  Please contact me by email with other questions or concerns (eraffety@princeton.edu).

Students need to complete the short readings listed below prior to each day of class.  There will be subsequent readings and discussion within each class day.  We will follow the syllabus over the six days; however, I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus prior to and during the course as I see fit.  All readings that are not in the required texts are available to students via SONSIWEB.

Schedule of Readings:

Day One:  Culture & Anthropology, Monday, January 14, 2013

Reflection Paper #1 due during class.

Readings: 

Laird, Joan, “Theorizing Culture: Narrative Ideas and Practice Principles,” in McGoldrick, Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 20-36.

Clifford Geertz, Chp. 3, “From the Native’s Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding,” in Local Knowledge: 55-70.

James P. Spradley and Brenda J. Mann, “How to Ask for a Drink,” in Conformity and Conflict: 76-84.

Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. and Marvin K. Mayers, Chp. 4, “Tensions Regarding Judgment,” in Ministering Cross-Culturally: 51-64.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• What is culture? And why does it matter?
• How do you define ethnocentrism and cultural relativity, and what might be their practical application in academia and ministry?
• Do you have culture?  Who has culture, and why?

Day Two: Kinship & Family Systems, Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Readings:

Review Friedman Chps. 1-7.

Review and bring ethnographies to class.

Ronald W. Richardson, Chp. 5, “The Basic Goal of the Work: Differentiation of Self,” in Becoming a Healthier Pastor: 56-67.

Schneider, David.  1968.  “Conclusion.”  American Kinship: A Cultural Account.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 107-117.

Kramer, Jeanette R.  1985. “Diagramming Your Family,” pp. 34-48 and “A Checklist,” 327-329.  Family Interfaces.  Brunner-Routledge.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• What makes a family?  What is kinship?  Is there a basic definition that applies to family in all cultures?
• According to Friedman, what ideas of family and basic laws are applicable to all family life?
• What features of family life does David Schneider observe as characteristic of American kinship?

Day Three: Culture, Kinship, and Family, Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Genogram and Reflection Paper #2 due during class.

Readings:

Review ethnographies and Friedman.

Please bring both Conformity and Conflict and Re-Visioning Family Therapy to class.

Collier, Rosaldo, and Yanagisako, “Is There a Family?  New Anthropological Views,” in Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions: 31-48.

Lingenfelter, Sherwood.  May 1985.  Book Review of A Critique of the Study of Kinship by David M. Schneider.  American Ethnologist 12(2): 372-374.

McGoldrick, Monica, “Introduction: Re-Visioning Family Therapy Through a Cultural Lens,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 3-19.

Waldegrace, Charles, “The Challenges of Culture to Psychology and Postmodern Thinking,” in in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 404-413.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• How does culture impact one’s understanding and practice of family?
• How do families in the ethnographies you read for class do or do not fit the patterns Friedman outlines in family systems theory?
• How do you/did you become aware of your own ethnocentrism when it comes to family and life experience? 

Day Four: Culture and Family Systems, Thursday, January 17, 2013

Readings:

Review Friedman and Ethnographies and bring to class. 

Also read Friedman, Chps. 11 & 12: 277-309.

Falicov, Celia Jaes, “The Cultural Meaning of Family Triangles,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 37-49.

Robert-Jay Green, “Race and the Field of Family Therapy,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 93-109.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• What are some specific cultural differences between family systems in Friedman and in the ethnography you read? 
• Come to class prepared to discuss some specific moments from the ethnographic text where Friedman’s diagnoses are in tension with cultural beliefs or practices.

Day Five: Therapy and Ministry with Cross-cultural Families, Friday, January 18, 2013

Readings:

Lingenfelter and Mayers, Chp. 8, “Tensions Regarding Vulnerability,” in Ministering Cross-Culturally, pp. 101-112.

Selected readings from Richards and O’Brien, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes.

Vanessa M. Mahmoud, “The Double Binds of Racism,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 255-267.

Ken Dolan-Del Vecchio, “Dismantling White Privilege within Family Therapy,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy: 159-175.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• What are some differences between the concepts of race and culture?
• How do these authors attempt to acknowledge race in their practice of family therapy?
• How does one practice family therapy with a particular eye to cultural diversity without essentializing the disparate experiences of individuals?
• What type of theology embraces a cross-cultural practice of family ministry?

Day Six: Modernity, Globalization, and Injustice, Saturday, January 19, 2013

Reflection Paper #3 due during class.

Readings:

Potter and Potter, Chp. 11, “Chinese birth planning: a cultural account,” in China’s Peasants: 225-250.

Leinaweaver, Jessaca B., “On Moving Children: The Social Implications of Andean Child Circulation,” American Ethnologist, Feb. 2007, Vol. 34(1): 163-180.

Celia Jaes Falicov, “Transnational Journeys,” in Re-Visioning Family Therapy (2^nd Edition): 25-38. [On SONSIWEB]

Dianna Shandy, “The Road to Refugee Resettlement,” in Conformity and Conflict: 345-354.

Please come to class prepared to discuss the following:

• How do the processes of globalization mentioned in the readings exacerbate cultural and class differences in practices of family life?
• How might one address these challenges in the practice of family therapy?
• What is the role of religious practitioners and academics when it comes to addressing inequalities, culture, and family today?