The Place Of the Family
Editorial
Few people fail to realize how much their own family has influenced them; few public speakers fail to emphasize the family’s importance in a number of social situations. There is some understanding of how the various family influences do affect the individual. It is, therefore, all the more remarkable that there is so little study into conditions which in their turn affect the family itself.
On the other hand, it is commonly said that family ties are weaker than they were, and a good deal of evidence is brought forward in support of this; such as the increase in the number of divorces, and the increase of juvenile delinquency, and its relation to lack of parental control. Even this causes little public demand for rebuilding family life, nor any wide interest to discover how best this can be done.
It is not without interest that the only national attempt to re-establish the family was made by the Petain government in France, and it is possible that their attempt to substitute the slogan, Family, Home and Country, for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, did the family no good, and indeed that their ill-famed venture has discouraged other, less defeatist, major campaigns.
Here and there, however, suggestions are being made to give a lead. Lord Samuel, in the Lords debate in June, said he regarded two influences as of supreme importance in intervening between the State and the individual? the family and the voluntary organizations. Obviously these two often exert an influence together; and obviously they affect each other’sinfluence. Voluntary workers frequently have to cope with the reactions of a family to an individual case, as well as to the individual case itself. It is to be questioned whether, even social workers’ training includes enough on this subject.
It is, therefore, most helpful to find very clear views expressed on these problems in a contemporary, by Dr A. T. M. Wilson (Reflections and Suggestions on the Prevention and Treatment of Marital Problems, Human Relations (1949), Vol. II, p. 233). He emphasizes the relevance in marital problems of community factors, and particularly the atomization of Society. He uses atomization in the sense used by Curie and Trist (Human Relations (1947), Vol. I, p. 258), namely the lack of positive relationships between the individual and members of his family outside his immediate family circle, so that the functional family is reduced in size. It is, therefore, obviously less capable of filling the role outlined by Lord Samuel; and there is all the greater need for the voluntary organi- ; zations to restore the balance. Before this can be done, it is essential that their workers should understand the factors involved; the first step in this is a widening of their own fields, which again is outlined in some detail by Dr Wilson. The next need he considers is a training course, which includes a wider general approach, and finally he recommends pilot experiments. All this is excellent; and his work should be read by all who are anxious to accept their own responsibilities in this field.
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