Ackerman Institute for the Family

About: Ackerman Institute for the Family is a education organization based out in New York, New York, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Family therapy & Poison control. The organization has 61 authors who have published 98 publications receiving 3556 citations.

Love and Violence: Gender Paradoxes in Volatile Attachments†

Abstract: This article presents a multidimensional, theoretical model for the understanding of relationships in which men are violent toward women. It argues that abusive relationships exemplify, in extremis, the stereotypical gender arrangements that structure intimacy between men and women generally. Moreover, it proposes that paradoxical gender injunctions create insoluble relationship dilemmas that can explode in violence. A multifaceted approach to treatment, which incorporates feminist and systemic ideas and techniques, is described.

The efficacy of a relationship-based HIV/STD prevention program for heterosexual couples.

Abstract: Objectives. This study examined the efficacy of a relationship-based HIV/sexually transmitted disease prevention program for heterosexual couples and whether it is more effective when delivered to the couple or to the woman alone. Methods. Couples (n = 217) were recruited and randomized to (1) 6 sessions provided to couples together (n = 81), (2) the same intervention provided to the woman alone (n = 73), or (3) a 1-session control condition provided to the woman alone (n = 63). Results. The intervention was effective in reducing the proportion of unprotected and increasing the proportion of protected sexual acts. No significant differences in effects were observed between couples receiving the intervention together and those in which the woman received it alone. Conclusions. This study demonstrates the efficacy of a relationship-based prevention program for couples at risk for HIV infection.

Feed‐Forward: Future Questions, Future Maps

Abstract: "Feed-forward" is a technique that encourages families to imagine the pattern of their relationships at some future point in time. Questions about the future, in conjunction with positive connotation, put families in a metaposition to their own dilemmas and thus facilitate change by opening up new solutions for old problems.

Ecosystemic Epistemology: Critical Implications for the Aesthetics and Pragmatics of Family Therapy

Abstract: This paper proposes that family therapy be responsive to both aesthetic and pragmatic considerations. Ecosystemic epistemology, a framework of ideas based on cybernetics, ecology, and systems theory, is suggested as a way of encompassing these different perspectives. Several critical ideas, often ignored by an overemphasis on pragmatics, involve: (a) the function of language in the relation between epistemology and clinical practice; (b) healthy and pathological family ecologies; (c) art and technique in therapy; and (d) the issue of manipulation.

Creating a Participant Text: Writing, Multiple Voices, Narrative Multiplicity

Abstract: This article uses the ideas of social constructionism to explore how families change by investigating the way our perceptions of ourselves in relation to others are formed through language. The idea that language has the inherent potential to generate a reply has strongly influenced our thinking. We propose that the reply to others is shaped by our initial reply to ourselves in inner conversation. Interaction moves back and forth from inner conversation to conversation with others, from monologue to dialogue, becoming the “stuff” of new narratives. The particular focus on language in this article is on how adding writing to the session conversation produces a “participant text,” a therapeutic narrative that is composed of the voices of the family and the therapists. These voices, often newly discovered or invented, allow our narrative discourse to expand and multiply. Using this approach with individuals, couples, and families from different socioeconomic levels, we have worked with mourning, divorcing couples, recovery from abuse, marital conflict, parenting dilemmas, and physical illness.