The “psychosomatic Family” Reconsidered: Diabetes in Context

Minuchin, Rosman and Baker’s (1 978) Psychosomatic Families is widely cited as a demonstration that the physiological disturbance of some diabetic patients serves a function in their families. We found that the original data did notprovide such a demonstration. We examined the psychosomatic family model in light of recent developments in the study and treatment of diabetes. We concluded that the model decontextualizes the family and assigns to it characteristics that are more appropriately seen as reflections of the disease process, the family coping tasks this entails, and the nature of the family’s relationship with the health care system. The need for new open-systems models of the family’s role in diabetes is discussed.