Family and mental health: contribution to reflection on family processes

Abstract

This study focuses on current issues within the scope of intervention of professionals who work with families. There are notable divergences concerning the concept of Family. The position adopted was one of not defining as a natural group ora simple shared object, but as a historically constituted social group. It also establislhed some premises that correlate Family and Mental Health. In consonance with the theoretical approach utilized, it analyzes some family processes, emphasizing those in which the family is viewed in terms of its unity, its identity matrix and its evolutional identity. It examines family structure and dynamics, as well as the way families pass on their knowledge and teachings, to future generations, who are affected by them.