Editorial: Social Justice in Family Therapy

• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12430
• Author: Jay L. Lebow
• Date: 01 March 2019

MARCH 2019 VOLUME 58 NUMBER 1

Editorial: Social Justice in Family Therapy

JAY L. LEBOW*

Fam Proc 58:3–8, 2019

The pursuit of social justice has been and continues to be intrinsically interwov en with

family science and the practice of family therapy. The family systems viewpoint,

which is at the foundation of both family science and family practice, holds as a basic value

the promotion of fair and balanced exchanges between individuals, and between individu-

als, smaller systems, and society. This emphasis is not only humane but also is consistent

with the now large body of empirical evidence that suggests such fair and balanced

exchanges promote the best functioning in individuals and in families, and that in the

wake of social injustice, problems in the individual, family, and societal levels multiply

(Ferguson & Evans, 2019; Roy, 2019).

From such roots, family therapists and family scientists have been and continue to be

outspoken about injustices experienced within families and by more marginalized families

in society, and to be leaders in intervening to help ameliorate social injustice. This in the

context of the all too obvious observation, reflected in both social science and the daily

headlines, that we live in a world in which there is enormous injustice, as well as vast dis-

parities in income, resources, and power between those in different nations and within

nations, as well as profound legacies of injustice.

From the first, family therapy has emphasized the importance of social systems in indi-

vidual and collective functioning. Flowing from this emphasis, early family thera pists

challenged the notion that family members who manifested problems in functioning bore

primary responsibility for family problems. Instead, they refocused attention on the family

system and larger systems. Family therapy from its inception has also been deeply

involved with a wide range of larger social issues such as the promotion of world peace,

the threat of nuclear destruction, and the welfare of those who are less fortunate economi-

cally across the globe.

Yet, those first family therapists also had their blind spots, including aspects of social

justice which went largely unattended. Within our field, visions of and attention to social

justice have deepened and expanded over time. One major emerging focus centered on

*Editor, Family Process, and Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jay L. Lebow, Family Institute at

Northwestern, 618 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60201. E-mail: j-lebow@northwestern.edu.

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Family Process, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2019 ©2019 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12430