Development of the Family System-Therapeutic Approach in the Addictions Treatment in Serbia

• Main Author: Petar Nastasić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Croatian Interdisciplinary Society 2020-03-01
• Series: Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems
• Subjects: addiction; systems theory; family therapy
• Online Access: http://indecs.eu/2020/indecs2020-pp1-14.pdf

The roots of system-group family therapy in alcoholism, from which the Belgrade School, originated in the socio-psychiatric paradigm (medical model of addiction, psychodynamic orientation and socialization of psychiatry), Led by these socio-psychiatric paradigm was in 1963. formed the Institute for Mental Health and on the same day formed Socio-Therapeuttic-Club of treated alcoholics.Involvement of addict’s wife and other family members, and later the professional environment in treatment began in the late 1970s, when The Day Hospital for Family Alcohol Therapy (1978) has been formed. A general system theory was introduced very consistently into this therapeutic model, which included emphasizing the psychoeducation of the identified patient and family members as well as the formation of therapeutic groups of multiple families as a form of prolonged treatment (stabilization phase), while, in the same time, preserving the concept of the therapeutic community and socio-therapeutic clubs as a form of prolonged treatment or recovery. The basis of the family-system therapy concept of the “Belgrade School of Addictology” is related to understanding the process of systemic equilibrium, through the processes of morphogenesis and homeostasis, namely through the understanding of pathological aspects of homeostasis called “processes of adjustment of the alcoholic family or system”. Eco-system processes significantly determine the characteristics of individuals, families, social institutions, as well as the characteristics of health and specificity of the disease. With that on mind, it is necessary to understand the transformation of therapeutic models that obviously cannot be purely medical, not as purely psychiatric. It has to be understood as a variable and individualized living processes.