Ethnicity and Family Therapy

This is one of the best psychology books I have ever read. Not only does it provide advice on how to treat people from certain cultures, it teaches the reader about the culture itself. This book is a marriage of cultural studies and psychology. While the book is large, the reader shouldn't be intimidated by its size. The book is broken up into several (50+) chapters and each chapter focuses on one culture. The book doesn't have to be read cover to cover. Each chapter is free standing.

Ethnicity and Family Therapy is quite simply the best book that exists to any interested person as well as students and professionals with a good overview of important factors to understand when dealing with differences that exist in people. I first became familiar with Monica McGoldrick about eighteen years ago. She has devoted her life's work to research and writing on the influences of ancestry and ethnicity in our contemporary lives. Every time I pick this book up (over the first and second editions), I find myself lost in it as if it is my first discovery of it and I always learn something new! A great book for a discussion group to consider.

I have been using this book and the earlier book in my practice for more than ten years. It has been vital to my work not only with other cultures, but my own (Irish)> I have often shared the readings with my clients who also found the chapters on their cultures to be acurate. If there was going to be one book on my shelf, this would be it. Got a copy to sell I would buy it as a back-up!

Finally a book that does not talk about race as a four color system. The book explores the cultural issues that face specific groups. I have used this book with my Polish, Dutch, Pilipino, Korean, French Canadian, Vietnamese, and Central American clients. I have been astounded how accurate, helpful, and insightful this research was in assisting me with my clinical work. The work covers the history of people and how it can affect people generations later through recurring patterns. This book is a great resource for those who want to learn about the vast number of cultures in America and how they are affecting by their culture, history, and family.I love Monica McGoldrick's works!

This is an excellent book for anyone who, among other things, questions whether American models of mental health are universally applicable and need concrete examples of how different cultures experience and manifest psychiatric disorders. Has sections on many different cultures, not only the numerically largest or economically most powerful.