Jay Haley obit - 3/2/07

[Smartmarriages]

Sharing this for those who come out of the Marital Therapy tradition. It's
also enlightening to see the foundations of "solution
focused/skills-focused" approach upon which we all stand, and to understand
the struggles of the pioneers that bucked the system way back when. - diane


> Mr. Haley was a proponent of brief therapies that focused on solving concrete
> and immediate problems rather than delving into the past for root causes.
> Developed by Mr. Haley's mentor, Milton H. Erickson, the approach also shifted
> the focus from the client in isolation to the social context, particularly the
> family unit. . . .
> Mr. Haley once wrote that "my most significant contribution is breaking
> therapy down to a practice of specific skills -- of simple ideas, skills and
> techniques. . . .
> Mr. Haley insisted that it was "the therapist's job to change the patient, not
> to help him understand himself." . . .
> Mr. Haley wrote in 1988: "Of the many ways to set a fee, the most obvious is
> to charge for the cure of a symptom rather than the number of hours sitting in
> the presence of a client."


Jay Haley, 83; Family Therapy Pioneer Advocated Direct Approach
By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
March 2, 2007

Jay Haley, 83, a psychologist recognized as a pioneer of family therapy and
a co-founder of the Family Therapy Institute in Chevy Chase, died Feb. 13 of
cardiopulmonary failure at his home in La Jolla, Calif. At the time of his
death, he was a research professor at the California School of Professional
Psychology at Alliant International University.

Mr. Haley was a proponent of brief therapies that focused on solving
concrete and immediate problems rather than delving into the past for root
causes. Developed by Mr. Haley's mentor, Milton H. Erickson, the approach
also shifted the focus from the client in isolation to the social context,
particularly the family unit.

"Working with more than one family member in therapy was a radical idea at
the time," said Scott Wooley, a colleague at Alliant International
University.

Mr. Haley once wrote that "my most significant contribution is breaking
therapy down to a practice of specific skills -- of simple ideas, skills and
techniques. This is quite different from the non-directive ideology the
field had when I first got into it."

His direct approach occasionally brought him into conflict with colleagues
who relied on more traditional approaches, as the New York Times noted in a
1985 article about a conference in Phoenix attended by a number of
psychotherapy luminaries.

In a heated confrontation with a New York psychoanalyst who specialized in
long-term treatment of troubled adolescents, Mr. Haley said: "When you say
an adolescent had such-and-such a development history, that's just your
dream, based on fantasy or hearsay. You'll never really know what happened
in his past."

Mr. Haley insisted that it was "the therapist's job to change the patient,
not to help him understand himself."

At the Phoenix conference, as the Times reported, he came under attack from
two renowned therapists, Carl Rogers, founder of client-centered therapy,
and Rollo May, a best-selling author and existential therapist. They said
that Mr. Haley's approach was manipulative and dangerous.

"Those who do long-term therapy say it is shallow just to focus on change,
but at least the patients get over their symptoms," Mr. Haley said.

Michael D. Yapko, a California therapist who considered Mr. Haley a friend
and mentor, recalled that Mr. Haley also could be a sharp-tongued critic of
those who agreed with his approach and that he had little patience for
well-established practices pertaining to session lengths, session
frequencies and fees.

Yapko quoted a line Mr. Haley wrote in 1988: "Of the many ways to set a fee,
the most obvious is to charge for the cure of a symptom rather than the
number of hours sitting in the presence of a client."

Jay Douglas Haley was born in Midwest, Wyo., and grew up in California.
After serving in the Army, he graduated from the University of California at
Los Angeles in 1948. He also received an undergraduate degree in library
science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1951 and a master's
degree in communication from Stanford University in 1953.

At Stanford, Mr. Haley worked with linguist and anthropologist Gregory
Bateson on a team project investigating schizophrenia. The team developed
the double bind theory of schizophrenia, which attributed the mental illness
to a young person's participation in dysfunctional communication patterns
within the family. Although the theory is now discredited as a cause of
schizophrenia, it provided Mr. Haley with a model for exploring
communication in families.

Bateson, who was once married to anthropologist Margaret Mead, was a
filmmaker, as was Mr. Haley. Mr. Haley and his second wife, anthropologist
and filmmaker Madeleine Richeport-Haley, produced 25 films together,
including three that reexamined Mead and Bateson's 1930s-era study of trance
and healing on the island of Bali.

Mr. Haley was director of family experimentation at the Mental Research
Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., before becoming director of family research
at the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, where he worked with Salvador
Minuchin, a major figure in family therapy. With Minuchin, he did pioneering
work in training lay people to work as family therapists. He also encouraged
therapists to focus on the needs of underprivileged and ethnically diverse
families.

In 1974, he co-founded the Family Therapy Institute, based in Chevy Chase.
Under his leadership during the next two decades, it became one of the
nation's leading training institutes. He also taught at the University of
Maryland, Howard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1994, he moved to La Jolla, where he continued teaching, writing,
lecturing and making films.

He was the author of more than 100 scholarly papers and 21 books, including
"Strategies of Psychotherapy" (1963), "Uncommon Therapy" (1972), "Leaving
Home: The Therapy of Disturbed Young People" (1981) and "The Power Tactics
of Jesus Christ and Other Essays" (1999).

His marriages to Elizabeth Kuehn Haley and Cloe Madanes ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 12 years, of La Jolla; three children from his
first marriage, Kathleen Haley of Richmond, Calif., Andrew Haley of
Conshohocken, Pa., and Gregory Haley of San Diego; four grandchildren; and
one great-granddaughter.


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