Virtual reality: The institutionalization of African-American familial dysfunctionality through psychotherapeutic method.

Family Therapy

April 2021

Full Citation

Imani, N. O.-R. (1996). Virtual reality: The institutionalization of African-American familial dysfunctionality through psychotherapeutic method. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 56(11-A), 4565. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=psyc3&NEWS=N&A…

Abstract

This is an ethnographic evaluation study of a psychotherapy program, targeted at first offenders and their families. The program had failed to accomplish its goals which were to address presumed dysfunctionalities in familial structure deemed generative of illegality. The study focused on analysis of the theory, methodology, and practice of the program with respect to its consideration for the sociocultural context of African-Americans. The African-American sociocultural context was selected because all of the families and offenders in the program are African-American. The hypothesis was that the program failed to consider the sociocultural experientiality of African-Americans and that this omission served a purpose in programmatic expansion and replication. This research found that the omission of socioculture manifested itself as a severe theoretical paradox. If the families had the power, within their own socioculture, to correct their problems and possessed the tools to make solutions materialize, then there was no need for a program to "enculture" them. To avoid this dilemma, the program replicated circumstances leading to persistent diagnoses of familial "dysfunctionality," and prescriptions of more substantive psychotherapeutic interventions. Risk assessment interviews and measurement devices led to the construction of familial dysfunctionality risk profiles. The responsibility of legitimating these evaluations belonged to staff. The program was organized around the idea of the universality of Eurocentric culture and to values like individualism, the rule of law and order, the Protestant work ethic, and democracy. Any occurrences in the sessions that indicated differing orientations were handled by viewing them as instances of resistance to therapy. Little constructive criticism was sustained. Either the program helped, or the families and youth refused to allow it to help, or external forces beyond program control intervened. Internal program failure was ont (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)