Work-Family Conflict and the Role of Economic Crisis under the Perspective of both Eco-Systemic and Family Psychodynamic Model: A Case-Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12974/2313-1047.2016.03.01.3Keywords:
Case-study, ecosystemic, psychodynamic, work-family conflict.Abstract
Research in the family field has identified the family-work conflict as an important relationship which affects both a person’s career and parental/marital roles. The Eco-systemic model (Voydanoff, 2002) has introduced the understanding of this relationship through the exploration of work, family, and individual characteristics. The present paper, based on a case-study methodology, has attempted to explore the role of economic crisis in the work-family relationship for a three member family involved in family and couple therapy based on both eco-systemic and psychodynamic model (Scharff and Scharff, 1998). The eco-systemic model was used during therapy in order to describe and explore the ways that work, family, and individual characteristics interact with each other in regard to economic crisis, while the family psychodynamic model offered a deeper understanding of the above mentioned interactions by focusing on the families’ and members’ defensive mechanisms, unconscious expectations, unconscious desires and emotions, early traumatic experiences as well as the impact of early important relationships on adults’ family and work roles. The present paper describes both techniques and interventions used during therapeutic process. Concluding, the process showed that economic crisis revealed hidden systemic/structural inadequacies related to family-work interaction that were based on family (as a whole), marital, and individual unconscious maladaptive mechanisms.
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