If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

Family Conflict

by Gordon Meggs

279 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-1056; ISBN 1-4120-9302-3; US$39.95, C$45.94, EUR32.82, £22.97

This book will help couples and parents to understand and resolve their own family conflicts and will help professionals who deal with family problems to help their clients.

About the Book

This book about Family Conflict aims to help couples an dparents to understand and resolve conflicts between partners, between parents and children and between siblings. It will also be useful to professionals who try to help their clients and patients to deal with family conflict. The book has at least three claims to originality. Firstly, it uses a holistic perspective, so that, whereas most if not all previous accounts of family conflict deal separately with conflicets between the marital couple, between parents and children and between siblings, this book integrates te treatment of conflict among all family members. SEcondly, it applies theories from the study of international and other kinds of conflicts and from the study of small group and divorce dynamics to families. Thirdly, it views conflicts as originating not only within the personalities of family members but also within the economic and political structures of their society.

The author narrows the field of concern to serious and harmful family conflicts, and examines its forms, causes, consequences, cycles, and suggests the means by which many kinds of harmful conflicts can be resolved and harmony restored.

About the Author

Gordon Meggs has a Ph.D. in Government from Sydney University, studied Psychology, Sociology and Politics for his bachelor's degree, and has done numerous workshops and sort courses in Family Sociology and Family Therapy, Mediation, and Social Groupwork. He was qualified and practiced as a social worker, psychologist and family mediator. Born in England, he migrated to Sydney Australia with his first wife and two daughters in 1965, and has since remarried, has 6 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His knowledge of family conflict is based partly on considerable experience of trying to help couples and families through mediation or therapeutic interviewing to resolve their conflicts and partly on reading and thiking deeply about theories of conflict and theories of family and marital life. The theory comes from having studied psychology, sociology and politis over several years, in particular from having undertaken a course in Conflict REsolutinos, as well as several workshops and seminars in Family and Marital Therapy, and in the mediation of mainly family disputes but also other kinds of disputes. His experience has been more than a decade of mediating disputes between divorrced and separated parents over their chidren, and a further decade of doing professional social work and counselling with troubled couples and families. His degrees are a Ph.D., a B.A. with first class honours, a Diploma in Social Studies, and he also has Certificates in Conflict REsolution Studies, Family Therapy and Family Sociology, and Mediation.

Excerpts