Multidimensional Family Therapy in Theory and in Practice

This article reviews the family therapy case of an adolescent substance abuser through the lens of multidimensional family therapy (MDFT). Initially, the adolescent presented with suicidal ideation, depression, academic difficulties, and behavior problems. The family experienced chronically high levels of conflict, which related to the mother's depression, the father's harsh discipline, and the adolescent's sister's frequent suicidal threats and outbursts. Family therapeutic interventions helped to decrease family conflict and improve the adolescent's grades and behavior. In particular, conjoint work with the parents had a stabilizing effect on the family system. As predicted by MDFT, this stabilizing effect was shown to place the adolescent on a healthier developmental trajectory. Limitations of the case and implications for future research are also presented.     

Battlefields of Ethnic Symbols. Public Space and Post-Soviet Identity Formation from a Minority Perspective

This article provides an analysis of interdependencies between post-Soviet Erinnerungspolitik in public space and the individual perception of urban reconfigurations by ethnic Germans in Kazakhstan. Applying a qualitative social-geographic approach the author examines determinants of the process of ethnic symbolisation of real and imagined places. Individual biography and the extent of Soviet socialisation are factors shaping the personal perception of symbolic landscapes. From the perspective of the individual, space reflects the power distribution within society and hence, impacts on individual identity formation. Depending on the dominance of internal as opposed to external identification, the (perceived) changing ethnicised landscape of cities potentially fuels ethnic tension.