Review
Corrupting the Young: and Other Stories of a Family Therapist.
Tesse and Moshe Lang, (1986). Melbourne. Rene Gordon. 169. Paperback. Price $8.95.
This book is a collection of brief tales from the experience of one of Australia’s leading family therapists. The book definitely works: that is, if it is meant to be humorous and entertaining. The stories tend to focus on the absurdities and paradoxes of life which manifest themselves particularly in family therapy. The Langs draw out the essence of each story well, and with great sense of play.
Because this book does not try to be a text, a how-to manual, it has enormous value as a resource in learning situations. The stories are succinct, and while bearing some hallmarks of the New Epistemology perspective, are refreshingly atheoretical and unacademic.
Within 24 hours of receiving the book, I was using it in two ways. Firstly, to illustrate phenomena in families or to promote discussion of them: and secondly, to provide my fellow family therapists with a damn good laugh.
Review by Bruce Marshall, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.
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Reference:
Marshall, B. (1988). Corrupting the Young and Other Stories of a Family Therapist. Australian Psychologist, 23(1), 119.