"The rich diversity of this volume will no doubt be invaluable for those family therapists, consultants, and therapy supervisors who are concerned with families of military personnel and veterans. Additionally, l found this to be rewarding reading from a broader perspective. The military family emerges as a testing ground for many of the most challenging problems that confront today's families and family therapists: the triangulation of two parents and an institution; work and personal value systems that are antithetical to 'psychotherapy'; the impact of frequent family moves, separations, and reunions; and the intense loyalty conflicts generated when a work 'mission' must come first. Military families are embedded in a context that is a potent caricature of the contexts of other families. " —Lyman C. Wynne, M.D., Ph.D.

The military family is typically confronted by frequent separations, relocations, reunions, and, all too often, physical danger. Equally stressful, if less glamorous, are the rigors of daily life in a highly regimented society in which the needs and natural tendencies of the family must always be tempered by the exigencies of the larger "family" of which it is a part. At first blush, the problems besetting service families might seem significantly different from those confronting civilians. On closer scrutiny, however, numerous analogies emerge: doctors, like soldiers, are often suddenly called away from the family on a "mission" of life or death; and academics and corporate executives are often forced to relocate owing to the vagaries of the marketplace. What distinguishes military life, then, is not so much the nature of the challenges it poses, but the number; few civilian families face so many in aggregate. Adequate helping systems, particularly those capable of responding to emergency or crisis situations, are therefore most important.

The first volume to apply systemic principles to an understanding both of individual family units and of the larger military or "adoptive" family's response to the needs of its "children," this pioneering book brings together the works of leading theorists, therapists, and mental health professionals servicing the different branches of the military. Particular problems addressed include substance abuse, incest, violence, the special needs of children of service members, and therapy with families of veterans and POWs. Throughout, the emphasis is on the development of treatment modalities that will accommodate the complex needs of individuals whose personal desires for security and comfort are often in conflict with the requirements of the military community of which they form an essential part.

The definitive sourcebook for mental health professionals who work with this population, THE MILITARY FAMILY is also of interest to all practitioners concerned with the problems posed by treating families whose internal dynamics are integrally bound up with those of larger networks and institutions. The numerous practical strategies for helping troubled service families, combined with a chapter devoted to training students to work with these families, will make this an important teaching text. Finally, the book is of importance to persons in government and the upper echelons of the military who shape policy concerning armed forces personnel and whose decisions impinge on the lives of those they are counting on to carry out their orders.