Family therapy, like almost everything within the field of psychology, has its deepest roots in the early principles laid out by Sigmund Freud, who is widely considered the founder of psychology. Augustus Y. Napier gives credit to Freud while also criticizing his work, explaining that Freud’s concept of the unconscious mind underlies much of Napier’s current practice. At the same time, however, Freud’s focus on the individual caused him to ignore the relationships in a patient’s life. Family therapy originated with Freudian psychoanalysis but moves toward newer approaches that put less emphasis on personal desires and more emphasis on The Interconnectedness of the Family.

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was “a wide conceptual and methodological gap that […] developed in the mental health professions, one with profound implications for mental health care” (38). While many psychologists and psychiatrists maintained their focus on the individual, others grew more interested in relationships and family patterns. Alongside this movement was a growth in other fields that looked to examine the interplay of different aspects of life, humanity, and the human experience, such as sociology, anthropology, and ecology.

In viewing the family as a closely linked and deeply complex system, Napier and Whitaker draw from ideas first articulated by the psychiatrist Murray Bowen, who created the family systems approach in the 1950s.