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Fam Proc 14:311-337, 1975

Sisterhood-Brotherhood is Powerful: Sibling Sub-Systems and Family

Therapy
STEPHEN BANK, Ph.D.a
MICHAEL D. KAHN, Ph.D.b
aVisiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.

bAssistant Professor of Psychology, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; Consultant in Family Therapy, University of
Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut.
Sibling interaction is an often overlooked aspect of family functioning. Individual development and many family
behavior patterns may be attributed to autonomous activities within the sibling sub-system.
A number of phenomena in which siblings have profound influence upon one another are explored. Siblings collude
and align with each other, at times help each other resist the powerful vertical influences of parents. Other sibling
systems serve to enmesh the youngsters even more with parents. Important sib-behavior patterns include: the death or
departure of siblings; the interplay between the sibling sub-system and the parenting system; and the roles that "well"
siblings play vis-à-vis their "sick" siblings during family crises. The sibling relationship is seen as a life-long process,
highly influential throughout the life cycle.
Understanding of sibling sub-system structure and dynamics can lead to more flexible therapeutic interventions.
Direct work with siblings provides the therapist with more options and greater leverage in producing change for all
siblings, as well as for other family members.

Problems With Existing Theory: Underrating of Sibling Importance

Current theories of family interaction focus almost exclusively on the influence of the parents on the psychosocial
development of their children. Thus, family therapy has usually focused on correcting the parenting process. Transmission
from parents to children downward, less frequently upward from children to parents, is the cornerstone of most major
family theories. When interaction between members of the same generation has received attention, it has been mainly with
the marital or parenting pair that family therapists have worked most comfortably. A notable example exists in the work of
Virginia Satir (23) who conceptualizes most family problems as an outgrowth of marital disappointment. This leads to a
therapy in which children are seen in order to improve their relationship with their parents and to communicate more
openly about the parents' marital difficulty. Satir's theory and therapy deal almost not at all with sibling relationships.
That sibling relationships have, at best, been seen as products of the interaction between each child and the parents rather
than among the children themselves is evident from a review of most major texts of family therapy. For example,
Boszormenyi-Nagy and Spark in their detailed investigation of family loyalties (6) discuss sibling dynamics only in terms of
ways in which parents assign an adult-like role to a well child. The well brother or sister is seen then as the parents'
representative. But the authors give no description of the well sibling's contributions to his disturbed sister's or brother's
problems. Nor is there any indication that siblings may influence each other for better or worse. This is particularly
surprising because loyalty, the central concept of the book, is the keystone of sibling relationships. Similarly, most recent
books of readings on child and family relationships ignore the sibling sub-system and what to do about it.
The neglect of the "sibling underworld," as one author has called it, is notable, too, in much of the in-depth clinical study
of family behavior. For example, Lidz and his co-workers (14) refer to the fact that the "normal" sibling is often far from
well-adjusted, but this is as far as the observation goes. In the same vein, Hoover and Franz (11) focus on the
non-schizophrenic siblings in families in which there is one schizophrenic child. While they were able to describe the
adaptations of these non-schizophrenic children as "firm, contented, isolated, struggling, near miss, or delinquent,"
development was seen only in terms of how successfully or unsuccessfully the non-schizophrenic children avoided the
patterns established between the schizophrenic sibling and his parents. No observations were made directly of the
relationships among the siblings themselves. More rigorous experimental family studies (18), which have brought families
into laboratory conditions, use siblings for their value as "normal controls" rather than for any specific relationship property
among the siblings. Here, normal siblings are used only for the contrast they make with their disturbed brothers or sisters.
In all fairness, the general under-emphasis of sibling status is common to our entire culture, and not just to family
therapists. In contrast with other cultures, as Caplow points out (7), Europeans and Americans emphasize the romantic
aspect of family life, namely husband-wife relationships and the product of that union, the children. But in African cultures
south of the Sahara, paths between generations are de-emphasized, fraternal solidarity is more important than romantic

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love, and loyalty and the control of rivalry among brothers are the cornerstones of family stability. In contrast, in Western
technologically advanced societies, brotherhood, sisterhood, and sibship in general no longer have the particular real status
they once had. This fact appears to be the result of the attenuation of traditional distinctions among siblings, whereas in
pre-industrial times a sibling's birth order gave him a right to certain forms of power. The ancient tradition of
primogeniture, which entitled the first-born male to receive all the family's resources, has been replaced by a more
egalitarian sibling group in which power and influence are more subtly worked out. Levirate and Sororate, ancient
traditions that decreed a brother and sister would marry his or her sibling's spouse in the event of the sibling's death have
not been practiced for many years. In addition, shrinking family size has made the sibling sub-group and sub-groups within
the sibling sub-group less visible.

Studies of Sibling Relationships: Retrospective Accounts

While Riskin and Faunce (22) recently noted the lack of research on sibling interaction in the family therapy literature,
we have been able to unearth several scattered islands of research and theory in this largely unexplored area. The following
synopsis summarizes work in which verbal report or indirect methods of assessing sibling relationships were used.
Alfred Adler's theory of sibling power struggles (1) was based on the reports he obtained from individuals about their
perceptions of, and interactions with, siblings. Basically the Adlerian theory views sibling rivalry as an outcome of the
order of birth; it is engendered by a struggle for the love of one or both parents. The focus on dominance, hierarchical
aspects of the sibling power struggle, and on rivalry itself is exemplified in a number of studies conducted in the 1930's
(13), but few of these studies focus directly on live observations of whole sibling groups. Rabin (21), in his study of
Kibbutz children versus non-Kibbutz children, suggests that sibling rivalry may be a function, as Adler suggested, of the
child's having been taught early in life to seek or not to seek the affection of parents. Again, however, the data on rivalry are
obtained by post-hoc testing procedures rather than "live" observation of behavior.
A large body of work investigates child and adult personality as a function of the sibling sex status, birth order, and
family size. This work is thoroughly summarized in Sutton-Smith and Rosenberg's book The Sibling (24). Birth order and
its interaction with sexual role has demonstrable and clear connections with personality and personal functioning. A whole
range of variables, including Machiavellianism, success in war situations, academic success, and cognitive style, are related
to distinct sibling position profiles. Toman, (25) basing his thinking on the reports of patients from individual therapy
sessions, makes a number of testable predictions about personality style, mate selection, and marital adjustment, again on
the basis of birth order and the interaction of sexual role with birth order. One's previous experience with sibling power
relationships and the experience that one develops adapting to members of the opposite or same sex among one's sibs serve
as the crucial developing ground for marital adjustment. Unfortunately, many of Toman's hypotheses have not been tested,
and those that have been tested have been only partially confirmed with no replication. However, Toman does suggest
obtaining a complete sibling history in diagnostic interviewing, and while he does not talk in terms of family therapy, his
hypotheses would lead to a definite emphasis on sibling relationships in individual therapy. Bowen (5) cites Toman's
concepts frequently. As part of Bowen's theory of differentiation of self, differentiation from the sibling group as well as the
establishment of a personal relationship with one's sibs is considered important in the de-detriangulation process.
J. Gerstl (8) interviewed 150 brothers and sisters who comprised 50 sibling triads in which the youngest sibling was at
least 10 years old. The author found 23 coalitions where all three siblings of the triad were in agreement that a coalition was
present. Twenty-one of 23 coalitions involved siblings of the same sex. The large majority of coalitions were between
siblings who were close in age. This study confirms much more informally gathered impressions that siblings team up on
the basis of likeness and similarity. Caplow (7) developed an interesting theory of power relationships within families. On
the basis of theory (with little experimental substantiation to this date) Caplow makes a set of predictions that describe the
conditions under which sibling coalitions are likely to form:

When the parental coalition is so solidary that no child is ever allowed to form a winning coalition with one parent
against the other, we may expect to see strong coalitions among the children, and even a condition of general
solidarity uniting all the children of a large family. When one parent is clearly dominant, a ... coalition is likely to
form between the weaker parent and a child, which may lead in turn to the formation of sibling coalitions against the
favored child or to other very complicated patterns in a sizeable family. When father and mother are nearly equal in
power, but do not have a strong parental coalition, sibling rivalry will be intense and bitter as the children compete
among themselves for the shifting coalition opportunities offered by their parents. (p. 99)

Bossard and Boll (4), in what stands as a highly original contribution, interviewed one hundred adult siblings from one
hundred large (more than six siblings) families. Through an interview and questionnaire, they obtained retrospective
accounts of what it was like to be a member of a large family. While the data take in the perception of only one member of
each family, they do suggest in a rich way the pervasiveness and extent of the sibling influence. This book, which has
largely been ignored by family therapists, is packed with dynamic and factual data. We can summarize Bossard and Boll's

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conclusions:
Retrospectively, siblings saw each other as much more fair to one another than the parents had been to them. While 44
per cent of siblings voiced resentment of parental discipline, only 11 per cent voiced resentment of discipline by parental
siblings. Siblings, the authors note, have better judgment about what really constitutes misbehavior; children understand the
persistence of misbehavior more accurately.
Sibling phenomena are especially visible in large families because of the necessity for division of labor and the
complexity of role allocations. As the size of the family increases, the importance of sibling sub-structure seems to increase.
As playmates, almost all the informants indicated that they played primarily with their sibs, and happily so. The emphasis
on sacrifice, on the group rather than on the self, was striking. Sibling rivalry and conflict appeared to have been minimal,
forgotten, and secondary to the primary bond of loyalty in the sibling sub-group. Siblings were seen as making a
concentrated effort not to embarrass each other and toward regulating each other in a way that would preserve the good
image of the sibling group. In later life, sibling relationships were described by the informants as close in two-thirds of the
cases; when contacts were not close in later life, it was because of wide spacing in birth time or because children did not
have an opportunity because of hardship to play with each other in early years. Ninety-seven out of the 100 informants
agreed that in large families siblings have a primary socializing function for each other, that the learning of fair play,
self-control, sharing, being able to listen as well as talk, were all important functions played by the sibling system.
Finally, "intra-sibling combines" were described in some detail. Like other authors, Bossard and Boll discovered that
dyads are the preferred sub-unit of large sibling groups, that there are sub-systems within the sibling system, and that these
sub-systems are formed usually in groups of two, less frequently in groups of three. These sibling combines are drawn
together by complementarity of interests, mutual needs, or narrow political interests that serve the group of two or three
within the family matrix.
The interactive effects of one sibling upon another have been studied in depth by Lidz, et al (14) in their article on ego
differentiation in schizophrenic symptom formation in identical twins. The detailed case presentation noted that after
hospitalization of one twin, the co-twin who remained at home became acutely disturbed. Using a review of case notes
obtained by each of the twin's individual therapist, as well as a review of the family history as seen through the parents'
eyes, they pieced together a crucial ego psychological function played by one sibling for the other. Other in-depth case
studies include that of Newman (19) who studied three younger brothers of three schizophrenic patients. The guilt
experienced by the younger siblings for allowing the older brother to become the sacrificial lamb of the family and for not
rescuing the older brother was examined in detail.

Studies of Sibling Relationship: Live Observations

We have located only four scattered studies in which the researchers made live observations of on-going sibling
interaction. Greenbaum reports (9) a clinical diagnostic procedure in which two siblings are interviewed together or are
watched playing together. The purpose of this procedure is to give the therapist a more balanced view of the child in his
natural sibling ecology and to make more natural the therapist's contact with the identified sibling. Greenbaum's procedure
is oriented more toward understanding the identified patient rather than re-working any aspect of the sibling sub-system.
Furthermore, the procedure involves only two siblings (the identified and the well sibling) and may exclude other important
sibling coalitions and sub-formations.
As part of the massive, in-depth, experimental and clinical study of the schizophrenic Genain quadruplets, Quinn and
Stein (20) studied the social interaction patterns of the quads with one another as well as with outsiders. Their findings are
interesting not only because of what they discovered about the Genain sisters but because they used careful observations,
time-sampling techniques, reported inter-rater reliability, and applied a theory (Simmel's theory of coalition in triads) to
explain their findings. Among their observations: The quads interacted with one another far less than they did with
outsiders; they were not a particularly cohesive group; and there were clear pairings within the group as well as differences
in the extent to which siblings initiated contact with one another. Myra, perhaps the healthiest of these schizophrenic
sisters, was demonstrated to isolate herself forcefully from the sibling group. Individuation from the undifferentiated mass
of siblings was seen as an important maturational process.
By far the most extensive direct observations of whole sibling subsystems, theory-making, and application of theory to
therapy lie in the work of Minuchin, Montalvo, and their associates (16, 17). In their first book, Families of the Slums,
Minuchin, Montalvo, et al. interviewed and treated large, fatherless, poverty families in which the allocation of power to the
siblings and the disorganization of parental functioning made recognition of sibling sub-system imperative. Both in this
work and in Minuchin's more recent Families and Family Therapy, the following points emerge about sibling interaction
and the role of the therapist.
1. Siblings give reflected self-appraisal, and this is crucial for the development of the identity. Sibs turn to each other for
protection when parents are disorganized. Siblings can, and do, form cohesive defensive groups when one is attacked by an
outsider. Sibs can act as socializers for each other, interpreters of the outside world for each other. They can bring intense

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pressure to bear upon one another. And finally, they can activate "rescue squads" requiring differentiated roles within the
sibling pack. (One child may call the police, another child may hide a younger child, etc. See Bossard and Boll (4)
previously cited for description of similar functions in non-clinical large families.)
2. Therapeutic interventions described as conflict-resolution family therapy and structural family therapy include the
following:
(a) Boundary-making between the sibling sub-system and the parental system: There seems to be a definite effort
directed toward letting parents function as parents and children function as children. The therapist's job is to restore
executive power to the parent, if possible. As part of this process, the sibling sub-system itself can be modified.
(b) Strengthening the sibling sub-system by allowing siblings to communicate more effectively and educably with each
other.
(c) Reducing the power and influence of parental siblings in such a way as to increase the power of the parent.
The present authors have drawn this synopsis of the Philadelphia Child Guidance group's approach to the place of
siblings in family therapy from many scattered references in the two books previously mentioned (16, 17). In the present
paper we expand on this and other works cited to present a more comprehensive view of this aspect of family functioning
and therapy. We suggset different and additional methods of conceptualizing sibling influence and a therapy format that
emphasizes the family therapy of siblings.

The Autonomy of Sibling Systems

It is clear that parents supervise and monitor sibling relationships, but there is a limit to the influence of parents over the
sibling system. In our view, siblings are not merely representatives to each other of their parents' wishes and expectations.
Siblings exert power, exchange services, and express feelings in a reciprocal way with one another that is often not
revealed explicitly in the presence of parents. In our experience, siblings are much more spontaneous when we see them
separately from the older generation: They are more direct with each other, less competitive, and "tuned in" to each other in
ways that are strikingly empathic. This should not be surprising. In a study currently in progress (3), preliminary data
indicate that siblings (brother-brother dyads age 4 and 6) spend more than twice as much time alone with each other than
with parents in a sample of middle-class families. Siblings live in their sub-system according to specific sub-system "rules"
just as other sub-systems, e.g. marriages, have their own sets of rules. Siblings define for each other, as do marriage
partners, how far each other may go and in what direction each may go. Sibling status and power, which may be monitored
directly by parents when the family is interacting as a whole, may take a very different direction when parental management
is not directly present. While an eldest sibling can be invested with powers and privileges in the public view of parents, a
coalition between his younger brother and sister can demolish his effective power on the playground where there is a world
of children not monitored by parents. There is wide variability in the autonomy of sibling sub-systems from the parental
system. As children mature and as they increase in age, their activities can be less and less effectively monitored by parents.
The extreme limiting case of this, of course, is in the post-parental sibling sub-system when parents are sick or deceased.
The sibling relationship lasts through a life time, often fifty to eighty years as compared with the child-parent relationship
which is usually from thirty to fifty years in duration. It may well be that the sibling system, as in the case of aging parents
who need nursing care, has a more powerful effect upon parents than vice versa. Here the action in the sibling group
becomes primary. Sibs are, in this situation, no longer a sub-system: they are the primary system.

Sibling Functions
What are the functions that sibling serve for one another relatively free of parental monitoring?
1. Identification and Differentiation. In our view, identification and differentiation occur between siblings as well as
between child and parent. The strength of sibling identification is often revealed when one sibling leaves or dies (see
section on sibling mourning) and the remaining sibling either incorporates or idealizes the image of the departed one. The
process by which one child sees himself in the other, experiences life vicariously through the behavior of the other, and
begins to expand on possibilities for himself by learning through a brother's or sister's experience is a powerful
phenomenon. Identification is the "glue" of the sibling relationship. In a sense the possibilities for identification with
brothers and sisters are more abundant than the possibilities for parent-child identification, but the motivation for
identification (love, protection, belief of guilt) may be less. Thus, sibling identifications may be less compulsive and freer of
the "driven" qualities that often characterize parent-child identifications. If this is so, then it suggests that family therapy
may take judicious advantage of this identification process, especially when adequate parental models are absent.
Differentiation, the other side of the coin, is another key process among sibs. Without adequate sibling differentiation, a
dangerous process of fusion can block the growth of each child.

In a family treated by one of the authors, the younger of two teen-age brothers became quite imitative of his
brother upon his mother's having abandoned the family. The older brother who had a history of psychotic ideation,
hallucinogenic drug involvement, and serious acting-out behavior became for the younger a desperate replacement

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for the close relationship that had existed with the mother. If the older brother bought records by the latest rock
group, the younger would soon follow suit. If the older dated a girl at a church gathering, we could be certain that
the younger would soon be imitating this. The fusion between the two brothers became so pronounced that when
the older announced, again, that he had been hearing the voice of God, the younger converted to a Fundamentalist
sect and claimed that he too could communicate with God. This is particularly significant because, prior to the
mother's leaving, the younger boy had been maturing in a surprisingly successful fashion. For him the identification
with, fusion with, and lack of differentiation from the older brother resulted in his placement in a mental hospital a
month after the older brother's admission.

Each sibling can be the touchstone for the other's concept of what he would not like to be. Such a phenomenon is
paraphrased by the statement, "I am not going to be like you," or, "I was once like you, and I will not be any more."
Frequently there is a defensive aspect in this differentiation suggesting that the sibling who rejects another sibling secretly
fears that he may be like his brother or sister. Among other siblings, the "I am not at all like you" process stands as a fragile
distancing maneuver which suggests that siblings do indeed have much in common. Differentiating serves, then, as a way of
externalizing or projecting deeply felt needs or anxieties. Projective identification between siblings can have all the force
and power that it does between parents and children.
2. Mutual Regulation. Siblings serve as sounding boards for one another; they provide a safe laboratory for experimenting
with new behavior where new roles are tried on, criticized, encouraged, or benevolently acknowledged before being used
either with parents or non-famiily peers. Siblings provide an "observing ego" for one another that can exert an effective and
corrective impact upon, and for, each other. The mutual regulatory process among brothers and sisters proceeds on the
basis of fairness and honesty, a relationship among relative equals. Because siblings have fewer emotional obligations and
experience relatively less guilt about each other, they naturally can influence and even counsel each other in a
non-possessive way characteristic of effective psychotherapy.

A striking example of this was noted when one of the authors treated a family in which the 18-year-old daughter,
the third of four girls, had become pregnant illegitimately and was one month away from having a baby of mixed
racial parentage. Both older sisters and younger sister provided continuous emotional support combined with very
direct and spontaneous questions about their sister's future. This process continued day and night for nearly two
weeks. The sisters hardly emphasized the "damage" to family's reputation and reported to the therapist that they
steered clear almost entirely of the question of whether having a black child would "hurt" mother and father. They
focused instead on the question of how she could enjoy life, have a baby, and attend college at the same time. Their
sympathetic concern regarding the boy friend's possible rejection by other whites was cited by the girls as a major
factor in prompting their sister to seek adoption for the baby.
In another case, the therapist invited two sisters of a suicidal college student to join the family therapy session.
Relatively immobilized in the presence of the anguished mother and depressed father, the sisters became verbal,
direct, and achieved noticeable rapport with their sib once their parents left the room. Shortly after, the girl began a
significant reconstruction of her life with the continued instrumental assistance of her sisters who found her a new
job, took her out shopping, and in general kept her active and goal-oriented.

3. Direct Services. Both within the family and outside, siblings perform valuable, tangible services for each other. In the
every-day sibling ecology, brothers and sisters can make life easy or difficult for one another; they can be quiet, facilitative,
sloppy and obstructive, or neat and cooperative. They teach each other skills, lend each other money, manipulate powerful
friendship rewards for one another, and serve as controllers of resources; introduction to a new friendship group often
depends on the kind auspices of one sibling to another. Brothers and sisters can act as buffers for each other, interposing
themselves between their sib and the outside world. The exchange of goods and services among siblings in the emotional
autonomy of the sibling underworld is in continuous flux and is subject to subtle and continuous negotiation, balancing, and
change.

One sibling pair, brothers 11 and 8, describe their exchange of services this way. The older provided protection
for the younger on the way to school. His large physical stature and willingness to stand up to anyone who picked
on the younger boy provided safety. The 8-year-old, when asked if he felt he could pay his brother back in any way
remarked that he "would never rat on him to his parents." When the parents found a knife they had not purchased in
the 11-year-old's drawer, the younger brother stated that it was he rather than his brother who had taken it. This
willingness to face down the parents served as a form of exchange with his older brother's willingness to run
interference for him against other children. Such exchanges are seldom negotiated directly or explicitly, although
siblings will sometimes make "deals" with one another e.g. "You let me borrow your records and I'll do your paper
route for you tomorrow morning."

We are impressed with the ability of siblings to negotiate and bargain effectively with each other in a manner that would

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be instructive for most warring married couples!

4. Dealing with Parents: Coalitions. Siblings hold an enormously powerful trump card. One can benefit or harm another
simply by the way in which their relationship with the parent is managed:
(a) An important function is that of balancing the power of the parents. In one family we observed that whenever the
alcoholic father would become abusive toward the older brother, the sister would suggest that she and her brother
play cards, get out of the house, or go for a walk. In the delicate set of family checks and balances, siblings can
protect one another from parental-executive "abuse of power."
(b) Joining is another important function. Siblings together can negotiate with more strength against the parents than one
of them acting alone. At the same time, if both sibs are misbehaving, neither sibling can be seen as the only offending
party.

Two brothers, 18 and 16, were brought to family therapy because of repeated school truancy. A careful
inquiry showed that John, the older, had been relatively stable until six months after his brother began acting
out. He told the therapist in a separate session he hated to see his brother be singled out for so much
criticism. Through misbehavior, he admitted that he was trying to balance the skewed pattern of criticism that
was being leveled at his brother by attempting to draw notice to himself.

(c) Secrets and Tattling. Siblings know in many cases much more about one another's behavior than either of the
parents. Tattling can be an important lever in the relationship between siblings. We have seen numerous siblings at
war with one another because one sibling acted as an informer on the other's behavior to the parents. In other sibling
groups, there is a conspiracy of silence, which the parents report to the therapist as an unbreakable understanding of
the children from which the parents feel isolated and excluded. Siblings are the guardians of each others' private
worlds. Willingness to make and maintain each other's privacy often serves as a powerful bond of loyalty among the
children.
(d) Translating Functions. Siblings serve as a bridge for one another between their world and that of the adults. While
Minuchin, et al. have referred to the fact that the oldest and healthiest child in disorganized families often serves as
an interpreter to the siblings of external reality, we wish to make a somewhat different point. We see the siblings
playing out what Gerald Zuk (27) has called the go-between process. In this process siblings mediate between one
another; they mediate the outside world for their parents and may mediate the parents' relationship.

In particular, in families of young children we see the parents often rely upon one sibling to translate the
meaning of another's silence or non-verbal gesture. When one sibling shrugs, grimaces, or falls silent, parents
may ask another sibling, "What was that?" We have also noted that in families with young children the verbal
behavior of the youngest is often intelligible to the older siblings whereas the parents cannot understand. In
another family in which a child, aged 4, had a serious speech impediment, the 8-year-old brother provided an
almost simultaneous translation of what the younger brother was saying to the parents who admitted their
frustration at translating the 4-year-old's pathetic attempts at speech.

Siblings also serve as translators for one another for the behavior of their parents. They alert one another to
punishment that may be forthcoming, signal each other about parents' moods and attitudes and warn each other about
the consequences of transgressing against the parents. Finally, we see siblings as a group performing genuine
educative functions for the parents. In numerous families we have observed children returning home to educate their
parents about changes in the wider culture from which the parents may have been insulated. Siblings, in groups, can
bring educational pressure to bear on parents, as is the case when the eldest has gone away to college, smokes
marijuana, returns home, informs the parents who are aghast. Six months later his younger sister, a senior in high
school, smokes marijuana, and the 14-year-old younger brother admits to the parents that he has tried it. The parental
reaction to the smoking is much less than their initial horror. It seems frequently to be a function of what we call
"educational pressure tactics" by the siblings who operate together as a cohesive force.
(e) A related function is pioneering. Pioneering seems to occur when one sibling initiates a process thereby giving
permission to the others to follow accordingly. While the negative side of the scapegoating coin says, "If he does it,
then I won't do it," the positive side says, "If he does it, then I can do it." We have observed many instances in which
one sibling feels justified in continuing certain behaviors or maintaining a new value because the other sibling has
"broken the ice" with the parents. The leader or "pioneer" generally feels satisfaction at having another sib emulate
what he has begun, while the follower feels justified in that a pattern, which he claims no responsibility for, has
already been set. These pioneering patterns include breaking explicit family rules, staying out late, smoking dope,
driving the family car, spending allowance on the "wrong things," or taking new developmental pathwayse.g.
leaving the family (or) adopting different morals/political codes, and lifestyles unimaginable to the parents.

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In a recent family case, one of the sisters successfully terminated her prolonged empty marriage of eight
years one year after a similar decision by her older sister. In confronting the parents' criticism, the theme, "If
she can do it, I can do it," was very much in the air.
This also happens in less dramatic ways in everyday life. Recently one of the author's daughters, age 12,
began dancing provocatively to some contemporary music while her 13-year-old sister joined with her
parents in laughing somewhat uneasily at the developmental implication of the dance. Two days later the
pioneering daughter was joined in dance by her previously quiet sister and both laughed at the parents who
sat, shaking their heads and smiling, aware that there was little to do about such an unfolding phenomenon
once the "trail had been blazed."

Mourning and Loss: The Departure of Siblings

The power of sibling relationships is most clearly demonstrated when a fundamental change in the structure of the sibling
group occurs. These structural changes have enormous consequences. Trauma, such as the marriage or death of a sibling,
the onset of illness, or even the divorce of a sibling from a spouse, can jolt a brother or sister. Normal separations can have
profound consequences in that the support and other important processes that buttressed the sibling relationship are no
longer taking place or have changed. Hospitalization, leaving home for school, marrying, and moving away all may be
important precipitants of psychological disturbance in another sibling. This suggests that a complete history of sibling
departure should be a significant focus for both the family and individually oriented therapists.
Beyond mourning, an internal process, the separation of siblings through life-cycle events can remove the buffer that the
remaining sibling has between himself and his parents.

For the moment let us consider a system in which there were only two siblings. A college student who had been
seen by one of the authors in individual therapy reported: "When my older brother left for college I had a terrible
lump in my throat when he got on the bus. I felt that I had lost my best friend. In fact, I think he really is my best
friend. After all, who else is there to shoot the bull with around the house? We used to double date and do all kinds
of things together. I haven't felt the same since he left. And now all I do is sit around and listen to my mother mope,
and you know what a drag that is." This student also reported that he felt much more confident when his brother was
home. His brother radiated confidence and support in contrast to the parents who were chronically depressed.

Sibling departures, then, can mean the loss of emotional support for the remaining siblings at home and also put the
remaining sibling in a "naked" position with respect to the parents. The relationship with both parents, therefore, becomes
overloaded for the remaining sibling, who often wishes that the departed sibling would return.

A 21-year-old borderline girl who had always functioned relatively well with the advice and assistance of her
brother suddenly decompensated when her brother left home to go to Viet Nam. At this point she had to transact for
herself (rather than through the brother) her relationship both with the parents and with the outside world. When
referred for psychiatric help, she refused to accept treatment until her brother was present during a furlough from
the Army. In the meantime, her relationship with both parents had been exposed as an angry one, frought with
disappointment on the part of both the parents and her. Until that time, the realities of her disorientation had never
been clear both because the brother had supported her and also because the family's attention had been focused
upon her brother.

Siblings continue to influence one another even when they are not physically together and even when they have had little
or no communication. The circumstances under which a sibling departs quickly can become mythologized both by the
remaining sibling and the parents. This myth often serves as a legacy or object lesson that guides the family's relationship
with the remaining sibling and influences the remaining sibling's conception of himself. It should be pointed out that sibling
reputations are normal processes, that they may be facilitative as well as negative, as in the situation in which a successful
older brother leaves in his wake the expectation by teachers and by the younger sister that the younger sister will do well.
As a self-fulfilling prophecy this turns out to be so. But there are many examples, more frequently seen by family therapists,
of the negative impact of sibling mythologies. In several cases in which we have seen the entire family, we have noticed that
adolescents who appear to be emotionally paralyzed, afraid of taking risks, involved in only half-hearted efforts at
differentiation, and who have substantial underlying depression, have older siblings who had previously experienced
difficulties repeatedly needing psychiatric intervention. These older sibling legacies, serving as a morality play filtered by
the parents, seem to produce paralysis. Because the sibling has often identified with the deviant unsuccessful one, he
prematurely closes off options that he might otherwise have explored.

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In two strikingly similar cases in which parents brought their 14-year-old sons in for therapy for a pattern of
under-achievement and moderate depression, we obtained a history of an older sister who had been both abusing
drugs and living a promiscuous life style that had ultimately led to prostitution. The families' reactions to both these
boys had been extremely tentative, despite their progressive acting-out. It was as if a kid-glove approach was being
used as a feeble effort to limit these boys' attempts to test the limits. In both family therapy situations, the parents
expressed the fear that the departed, wayward daughters had influenced the remaining sons (despite clear evidence
that the remaining sons were functioning better than their older sisters). Both families lived in the fear that if they
"rocked the boat" with the younger male sibling, they could cause him to follow in the sister's footsteps. In a sense,
the tail end of the hurricane of the previous sibling's disturbance paralyzed the attempt of the subsequent sibling to
experience a clear rebellion against the parents, to act forcefully with the family on his own behalf during his
adolescence. The fathers of both these boys, in reporting their difficulties, expressed the feeling, "Oh, no, not
again!"

The Reaction of the "Well" Sibling to the Psychological Disturbance of the "Sick" One
How does a well sibling respond to brothers or sisters who become dysfunctional? With whom does he side in the family
war? Genuine emotional neutrality is probably impossible in family relationships, and this principle certainly applies to the
relationship between siblings. The well sibling is an involved participant in the crisis of the sick sibling. As a spectator and
as a participant, he is witness to the wounds in both parents and in his sibling. The well sibling is then confronted with
choices. "With whom shall I side, and what are the costs to me of side-taking?" There appear to be four general well-sibling
strategies for dealing with the disturbance of the sick sibling.
Strategy No. 1. Flight and Avoidance. By far the most frequent strategy employed by the well sibling is to detach himself
from the sick sibling without obviously siding with the parents. The well sibling tries to chart a course between the Scylla
of the parents' need for support and the Charybdis of the disturbed sibling's need for friendship and coalition. He may feel
sorry for, and angry at, the parents and the sick sibling simultaneously. His flight from both the sick sibling and the family is
an attempt at resolving feelings of helplessness and paralysis. The well sibling leaves the family with relief, realizing that he
could pay a high price for embroilment in family politics. He seeks coalition with other well siblings, peers, and people
outside the family system who can offer more reward. The relief upon fleeing that the avoidant well sibling experiences is
often mixed with guilt.

A 24-year-old young man who had a lifelong history of conflict with parents, school adjustment problems, and
chronic depression, included, at the therapist's request, his 26-year-old sister. The therapist asked her why her
brother was the one who had all the problems and what her view of this had been as a child. Her answer suggests
the experience of the avoidant sibling. Well sibling: "I felt sorry for all of you: there was so much screaming and
yelling between you and Mom and Dad. But I guess I just got out of the way, you know, I'd go up to my room and
lie on my bed and listen. I used to wish that you could run away to another family where you could get along better.
I always felt lousy for not standing up for you then. I was miserable, but never told anyone." Therapist: "So what did
you do?" Well sibling: "I got married early, at 18. I came home as little as possible. I only started coming back to
see Mom and Dad once you had gone off to college."
Another patient, 14 years old, a boy residing at an adolescent treatment unit, had run away from home and had
been placed in the institution at his own request. His three brothers remained in an urban slum with alcoholic, and
probably psychotic, parents. His own adjustment was healthy. He expressed to his counselor, however, a strong
sense of guilt regarding what he called his "copping out on my brothers." He eventually began to AWOL from the
institution, each time returning by himself from his home visits. His explanation was that his returns home were
"check-ups" to make certain that his brothers were still alive and well; he said he bore some responsibility to see
that things did not get worse. This boy, like the sister in the previous example, seemed to be burdened with the
question: "By what right do I survive while the others suffer so much?" Robert J. Lifton, in his book Death in Life
(15) refers to the survivors of holocausts such as Hiroshima as being burdened with survivor guilt. Well siblings
may experience some of the same feelings.) Well siblings of the type described here often involve themselves in
family therapy sessions with a sense of energy verging on urgency as if to expiate themselves from the guilty yoke
they seem to carry.

Strategy No. 2. Well Sibling Sides with Parents Against Sick Sibling. If the parents seem to have developed a strong,
rewarding emotional bond with the well sibling and well sibling has played an earlier policeman-like, parental role with the
sick sibling, the well sibling often appears as a "white sheep." He has little to gain by supporting the deviant brother or
sister. In the eyes of the sick sibling, the well sibling appears too good, somewhat smug, and his behavior toward the sick
sibling may appear self-righteous and impatient. If the sick sibling's symptoms become directed against the well sibling as
well as the parents) the sudden fury of the scapecoating process of the triad, well sibling plus parents against sick sibling,

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can take on considerable force. The addition of an unsympathetic well sibling to the scapegoating can make scapegoating
total, the isolation profound. Like the subjects of Asch's early conformity experiments, the sick sibling loses his only ally in
the family when he attacks his sibling, and this may place sick sibling in a weak and pressure-prone position with respect to
the demands of the family. The attack of well sibling upon sick sibling is not necessarily an obvious process.
Without an obvious coalition with the parents, the well sibling can join the parents in a de facto way. The well sibling by
quietly aggravating his disturbed brother or sister produces an unacceptable explosion in the sick sibling that leads to
parental criticism of the sick sibling. The well sibling remains silent, but his neutrality and manipulation serve as an
acknowledgement that he is really on the parents' side.

For example, a 7-year-old boy who knows his younger brother is extremely sensitive to noise plays his record
player too loud. The younger boy attacks the older, while the "subtle aggravator" manages an air of innocence.

Incidents of this kind can produce, over time, a shadow coalition between the well siblings and the parents. Over many
years, if the well sibling gives the sick sibling "enough rope to hang himself," the sick sibling achieves the scapegoat status
previously described.
Strategy No. 3. Well Sibling Forms a Friendly Coalition on the Side of the Sick Sibling. Siblings often find strength in
unity. We have worked with numerous sibling pairs in which the sick sibling and the well sibling act out together with force
of tandem action, overwhelming the parent or parents. The effect is to nullify and cancel out some of the parental
scapegoating of the sick sibling.

Thus, in one case, a relatively well older adolescent sister began joining her brother on his drinking binges,
defying the parents and staying out beyond a reasonable hour. The older sister had much resentment of her own,
until now unexpressed, which became directed toward the parents through her coalition with her brother. The
brother and sister, in family therapy sessions, joked openly with each other about their exploits, while the parents
helplessly looked on. Here the alliance between the well and sick sibling served both siblings' need for support in a
power struggle with the parents. Rebellion, as well as differentiation from parents, was served by a mutual
egging-on process.

We have found such coalitions against parents usually serving other important needs of both siblings. One example would
be active protection of the sick sibling by the well sibling who identifies with the sick one's plight. Through coalition with
the sick sibling, the well sibling can vicariously relieve and rework personal issues cut off by avoidance in previous years.

Another older sister, 30, joined family therapy sessions for her "kid" brother, 16, with whom she had had very
little contact for three years. An instant coalition was formed with the sister taking the brother's side and arguing for
more time and interest to be shown to him. Her own older struggles with the parents, she admitted, were being
expressed through the brother: "This time," she told her father, "bring up one of your kids the right way."

Frequently, well sibling-sick sibling coalitions are of a more "undercover" or subtle variety with the well sibling supporting
the sick sibling without risking going public with this supporti.e., letting the parents know. We have seen frequent
instances of the well sibling providing comfort and direct support for the sib who had been embroiled with the parents.

A 25-year-old woman in individual treatment reported that her older well sister could never criticize her parents
when all four of them were together. The older sister found public siding with the "sick" sister risky. But the older
sister was clearly supportive when seen by the therapist alone with her "sick" sib. She advised her how to avoid
fights with the parents, how to stand her ground, and how to keep out of parental arguments. By siding quietly, the
older sister maintained a warm rapport with her "sick" sib and maintained a cordial though bland and inoffensive
relationship with their parents.

Strategy No 4. Well Siblings and the Go-Between Process. The go-between process described by Zuk (27) describes
this particular well sibling strategy. By playing the role of the "interested third," he or she tries to mediate in the quarrels in
the family and assumes the role of peacemaker. He might be described as a parental sibling in the following sense. He is
parental both to his own disturbed sibling and also toward his parents' anxious and immature ways of responding to the sick
sibling. Constantly acting as oil on troubled waters, providing a buffer for all family conflicts, this sib keeps the family stuck
in its comfortable misery. The family therapist must often be involved in helping this kindly mediator to remove himself
from the family embroilment. The therapist must skillfully remove this sibling who represents, to the therapist, a
pseudo-therapeutic rival. The procedures by which the therapist works with this go-between sibling are somewhat delicate
and will be described in the next section.

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Siblings in Family Therapy

We make sibling relationships an important focus in family therapy, wherever possible, no matter what the age of the
identified patient might be. In childhood and in the teenage years, one of the principal reasons for referral is trouble in the
sibling system: children are fighting with one another, are unfraternal, are ganging up against the parents, etc. While there
is often less action in the sibling sub-system during the middle adult years (25-50), action resumes as the parents grow
older and siblings must turn to each other for the care of sick and aging parents. After parents die, sibs offer the only ties to
their family of origin.
Using Sibling Concepts to Relabel Family Problems. Both in individual and family therapy, we take a complete
anamnesis of sibling relationships. We ascertain, as does Toman, the sibling status relationships of all members of the
family. This diagnostic information can prove valuable in the kinds of interpretations used in family therapy.

A father and mother, the parents of two boys 10 and 8, were seen with their children because the children were
reported to be fighting viciously with one another. The parents felt both embarrassed and guilty about the
obstreperous behavior of their offspring and seemed at a loss for any effective action other than screaming at them
and breaking up the conflict. This parental interaction usually resulted in more fighting between the children.
As a way of connecting in a positive and non-guilt-inducing manner with both parents, the therapist, after taking
a history, pointed out these facts: (a) that the mother had been an only child and therefore lacked experience in
dealing with sibling conflict; (b) that the father had been separated by six years in age from his only other sibling;
(c) that the two boys were very close in age and in physical stature, which normatively meant there would be a
struggle for power and balance. These comments gave the family a view of this situation as a normal and
explainable process and permitted the therapist to make his next observation, which involved removing the parents
from the sibling fighting system so that the children could be left to establish their own ways of resolving conflict.

Siblings as Consultants. We routinely try to ascertain from the identified patient which siblings he or she sees as helpful.
We try to "import" these siblings into individual and family therapy, usually on a brief basis, using them in order to move
the therapy in certain strategic directions. At times, we hold a separate meeting with one or more siblings of the identified
patient, usually not in the presence of parents, because siblings tend to demonstrate their loyalties more openly when free of
the need to choose sides with the parents present. We have had repeated experiences of "importing" absent siblings from
afar to provide a new context for the family's symptoms. This is especially useful during a crisis or when the family appears
to be reaching an impasse with the therapist. With considerable drama, the therapist may announce that a geographically
distant sibling is essential for the progress of the therapy. We try to build this drama so that, when the absent sibling comes
into the family session, the family hopes are high and their anxiety is raised to the point of representing a useful crisis.

A 14-year-old girl and her parents were seen for three sessions when the girl, who was over-involved in a
relationship with an older boy, became despondent and rather manipulatively threatened suicide. She refused to talk
with either parent in the therapist's presence, and the therapy seemed to be going nowhere. Having ascertained that
her brother, Bill, who was at a university on the opposite coast, had been her closest compatriot during her
growing-up years, the therapist asked the family's permission to bring Bill home across a distance of 3500 miles to
participate in the family therapy session. Having obtained this permission, the therapist, in his office, on the spot,
phoned Bill, and he agreed to be on the first plane out the next morning. Within 24 hours, he had returned home for
his first visit in a year, and a three-hour meeting was held the same day with the 14-year-old and the older brother.
What ensued was typical of such meetings. The imported sibling, as an outsider, shed significant light on the
family's functioning, was able to speak directly and openly to his sibling, duly expressed support for her but also
expressed constructive criticism, and acted as a consultant for the therapist about the family. He simultaneously
drew some of the parents' heat away from the spotlighted sister.

This process must not be abused by the therapist. The imported sibling is willing to serve as a consultant largely because
he knows he can return to a safe place outside the family. The family appreciates his viewpoint because he often has a
privileged status. But at the same time, the therapist must not pressure the imported sibling into damaging his own
relationship to the family by revealing too many secrets. The therapist must make certain that he does not use the imported
sibling in a parental way. It must be remembered that the imported sibling must get something for himself from this session
too. We usually take pains to ensure the sibling-guest-consultant a chance to verbalize something of his own unmet needs.
Another caution we have learned is not to over-burden already over-taxed siblings. This can have disastrous consequences
for the therapy.

In a large, lower-class family of six children in which the symptomatic child was retarded and presented behavior
problems, the therapist assigned several tasks to the oldest daughter to carry out. Week after week the family would

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return with the tasks accomplished, a not unusual finding in families in which the oldest daughter is quite
competent. Upon the assignment of yet another task, the oldest daughter finally stood up and said that she was sick
of having to take care of everybody in the family and walked out of the session. The family did not return to the
therapy because the daughter's participation and presence was considered by them as an essential keystone in their
functioning. Parental children usually resent their statuses, and if the therapist decides to employ them in working
on a sibling relationship, he must make certain that he simultaneously frees the parental sibling for a more
rewarding life.

Sibling Rehearsals. We have noted that siblings often rehearse behaviors with their brothers and sisters that they later try
out on parents and in the outside world. We have capitalized on this fact in our therapy format by inviting siblings in for a
session so that the patient's rehearsal of important new behavior can take place. Because siblings are usually less
threatening to the identified patient than parents or other people and because other siblings are more receptive, we find this
provides a good warm-up.

A severely obese, unhappy, young woman in her late 20's came to the realization that she was, if not homosexual,
then bi-sexual in her orientation. Terrified of announcing this to her parents, she was encouraged to discuss it first
with her sisters by bringing them in to therapy sessions. At a later time she was then able to get enough courage to
announce this to her parents in the presence of her sisters, whose support had been garnered. Interestingly, the
women in this family, three sisters and the mother, began holding their own consciousness-raising sessions after the
family therapy stopped, discussing intimate sexual matters with one another and then achieving a closeness not
hitherto attained.

Sibling Rallies.1 We frequently call a meeting of the entire sibling group, with the parents temporarily excluded. The
purpose of the sibling rally is to foster encouragement, support, greater honesty, and understanding within the sibling
sub-group. At times our purpose is to help the identified sibling patient live down his scapecoat or mental-patient status
with siblings present; at other times it may be to work out a specific issue in which the sibling patient feels that he or she
has been treated unfairly.

Doreen, 34, the mother of three children, and a single parent, was repeatedly called upon to take care of her
alcoholic and aging parents. Her parents came to her house only at Christmas and Thanksgiving, required her
continuous care when they were drunk, and when illness struck, she was the one the only member of her sibling
groupshe had an older brother and younger sister) who cared for the parents. The therapist, who was seeing
Doreen with her three children, obtained this information almost accidentally. Because of the tremendous strain the
grandparents were placing on Doreen, it was clear that her capacity to mother her own children was sorely limited.
At this point the therapist called for a sibling rally. The older and younger siblings gladly came in for two sessions
in which the patient raised, with some bitterness, the issue of her status as the one who was over-responsible. Her
brother and sister agreed that she had over-functioned but at the same time criticized her for making it impossible
for them to take a role with their parents. After a period of heated conflict among the siblings, new balance was
achieved in which the labor of caring for the parents was more equally divided.
In another situation, a 19-year-old boy who had been hospitalized twice for psychotic kinds of episodes was
feared by both parents who, despite intensive family therapy, clung to their worry that he was permanently mentally
ill. This was despite the fact that the patient demonstrated clearly that his two hospitalizations had been induced by
LSD rather than any longstanding schizophrenic process. The therapist felt that the patient had been mis-diagnosed
at the hospital in which he had been placed and that the image of chronic schizophrenic had been accepted by the
family. While it was impossible to unlabel this young man with his parents, we called for a sibling rally in which his
siblings warmly responded to the patient's progress and admitted how "fixed" Mother and Dad seemed to be about
his being a mental patient. Steve, the identified patient, felt that the meetings with siblings had given him greater
pride and renewed confidence in himself; the approval of parents became less important.

4. Sibling Exile. In many families we find there is a well sibling who serves (see section on well sibling-sick sibling
relations) as an interested third party, mediating between the parents and the disturbed sibling. This sibling keeps the family
on an uneasy but stable balance, and we see his sibling role as too brotherly, too parental, and his role with the parents as
too parentified. In order for the necessary conflict to occur between the sick sibling and his parents, we try to find a way to
extract the mediator sibling from the conflict.

Mother brought her teen-age, 17-year-old son in for therapy. They lived on a modest income with the older
brother, aged 21. The mother was extremely concerned about depression in the younger son and about the
possibility of violence at home. The younger boy's angry feelings were directed continuously toward his older

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brother who acted as an agent of mother, as a replacement for the dead father.
The therapist felt that the proper direction for the 17-year-old's conflict would be toward the mother, but this
could not happen until we helped the older boy to leave home. In a family therapy session in which the older sibling
was included, we pointed out that there was a difference between a brother and a father, that the older brother could
be a good brother but not a father, and that we empathized with the older brother because of his "stunted" life.
When he inquired what we meant by stunted life, we pointed out that he was missing a lot of fun by playing "junior
therapist" to mother and brother. It was suggested to the older brother that mother had had the wisdom to hire
herself and her younger son a therapist so that perhaps the older boy could now afford to retire from his position of
unlicensed family therapist and live his own life. The following week he made tentative plans to move out of the
house, and the conflict between the mother and the younger sibling increased. This was viewed by the therapist as a
healthy increase of tensions. At this point the normal adolescent conflict between son and mother could be worked
with directly without undue interference from the older brother.

CONCLUSIONS
One writer suggests that adults, and the present authors would add family therapists, may have an "adultomorphic"
perception of the world of children. "... if the younger generation were to conduct inquiries concerning family life, their
perception of members' roles would quite likely be quite different ... Museum examples of household rooms constructed to
fit the eye level perspective of young children suggests how a 'view from below' might considerably alter the assessment of
the relative importance of parental, sibling and peer influences (12, p. 284)." Family therapists, perhaps because of their
own middle position in their life cycles, with heavy involvement in the rearing of their own children, have paid too little
attention to observation, theory, and research in the area of sibling interaction and sibling psychotherapy. As we have all
heard in another context: "Sisterhood-brotherhood is powerful."

REFERENCES
1. Adler, A., Understanding Human Nature, New York Premier Books (Fawcett Publications), 1959.
2. Anthony, E. J. and Koupernik, C. (Eds.), The Child in His Family, Vol. I, New York, Wiley-Interscience, 1970.
3. Bank, S., A Study of the Time Spent by Same-Sex Siblings With One Another, in preparation.
4. Bossard, J.H. S. and Boll, E. S., The Large Family System, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1956.
5. Bowen, M., "Toward the Differentiation of Self in One's Own Family," pp. 111-174 in J. Framo (Ed.), Family
Interaction: A Diagloue Between Therapists and Researchers, New York, Springer, 1972.
6. Bonzormenyi-Nagy, I. and Spark, G. M., Invisible Loyalties, Hagerstown Md., Harper & Row, 1973.
7. Caplow, T., Two Against One: Coalition in Triads, Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1968.
8. Gerstl, J., Coalitions in the Sibling Triad, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, Dept of Sociology, mimeograph,
1956.
9. Greenbaum, M., "Joint Sibling Interview As a Diagnostic Procedure," J. Child Psychol. Psychiat., 6, 227-232,
1965.
10. Grossman, F., Brothers and Sisters of Mentally Retarded Children, Syracuse N.Y., Syracuse University Press,
1972.
11. Hoover, C. and Franz, J. O., "Siblings in the Families of Schizophrenics," Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 26, 334-342,
1972.
12. Irish, D. P., "Sibling Interaction: A Neglected Aspect in Family Life Research," Social Forces, 42, 269-288,
1964.
13. Levy, D. M., Sibling Rivalry, American Orthopsychiatric Association Research Monograph No. 2, 1937.
14. Lidz, T., Fleck, S. and Cornelison, A., Schizophrenia and the Family, New York, International University Press,
1965.
15. Lifton, R., Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, New York, Random House, 1967.
16. Minuchin, S. and Montalvo, B., et al., Families of the Slums, New York, Basic Books, Inc. 1967.
17. Minuchin, S., Families and Family Therapy, Cambridge Mass., 1974, Harvard University Press.
18. Mishler, G. and Waxler, N., Interaction in Families. New York, John Wiley & Sons 1968.
19. Newmann, G., "Younger Brothers of Schizophrenics," Psychiatry, 29, 146-151, 1966.
20. Quinn, O. and Stein, J., "The Social Interaction Patterns of the Quadruplets" in D. Rosenthal, (Ed.), The Genain
Quadruplets, New York, Basic Books, 1963.
21. Rabin, A. I., Growing Up in the Kibbutz, New York, Springer, 1965.
22. Riskin, J. M. and Faunce, E. E., "An Evaluative Review of Family Interaction Research," Fam. Proc., 11,

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365-455, 1972.
23. Satir, V., Conjoint Family Therapy, Palo Alto, California, Science & Behavior Book, 1967.
24. Sutton-Smith, B. and Rosenberg, B. G., The Sibling, New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.
25. Toman, W., Family Constellation, New York, Springer Pub. 2nd ed., 1969.
26. Vogel, N. and Bell, W., "The Emotionally Disturbed Child as the Family Scapegoat" in: A Modern Introduction to
the Family, The Free Press New York, pp. 412-427.
27. Zuk, G., Family Therapy: A Triadic-Based Approach, New York, Behavioral Publications, 1972.

Reprint requests should be addressed to Stephen Bank, Ph.D., 109 Broad Street, Middletown, Connecticut 06457.

1A video interview (a Sony 3600) of a sibling rally can be obtained on request from Dr. Stephen Bank, 109 Broad Street,
Middletown, Conn. 06457.

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