Structure and Function

I have been really interested by all the coverage on the woman who just had the octuplets, now making her a single mom of 14 kids. I thought it was interesting, because in an interview she commented on how being an only child made her very lonely, and that's why she's had so many kids. I thought this was very interesting that she said it in this way, because it's a good example of attributing a functional problem to structure. Being an only child doesn't make you lonely - that's a matter of how her parents interacted with her. Also, having more children will not necessarily mean more love or more attention, for her or the children.

As a professional, I think it is important to not only remember the difference between structure and function, but also to remind the clients you are working with of that. Getting too concerned with the structure of things could cause them to make changes that won't necessarily solve the problems they are really facing.