Brilliant and groundbreaking! Dr. Perlmutter has done what no other single author has accomplished -- namely, bridging the near half-century gap between biomedical psychiatry and family systems theory and practice -- and has done it masterfully to the benefit of both disciplines. A. W. Richard Sipe, Author of Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis Chock full of countless vignettes, intervention strategies, and useful linguistic frames, A Family Approach to Psychiatric Disorders will be of immense value to both trainees and experienced therapists who wish to deepen their understanding of family systems and to be better versed in the psychiatric dimensions of family problems. Every reader will gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of illness and family patterns. After completing this book, no reader will be able to contemplate psychiatric illness, without simultaneously visualizing the family members whose struggles also inhabit the patient's world. Israela Meyerstein, L.C.S.W.C., Director of Clinical Training, Family and Marriage Therapy Program, The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland