J. Rolland, MD
(HarperCollins, 1998) [320 pages]

The changing political, economic, and health care systems provide an ideal context for the introduction of theoretically and clinically grounded treatment models which are truly integrative. Rolland's book offers one: a biopsychosocial, multisystemic model for working with families in which one or more members has a chronic illness or disability. The book was initially inspired by Rolland's own experience of the dilemmas and strains involved when a family member is seriously ill or disabled and is written from the point of view of an expert clinician wondering what might have been helpful for himself and his family to know in the face of such adversity.

Rolland successfully integrates a great deal of information in a clinically useful manner. The proposed treatment model integrates a psychosocial typology of chronic illness with an understanding of the life cycles of the individual, the family unit, and the illness itself; family systems theories of interaction, organization, communication, and coping; and a constructivist appreciation of the influence of culture, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and family history on belief systems related to health and illness.