Clinical Practice, Psychotherapy, and Family

This book shows how Fernando González Rey’s Theory of Subjectivity can guide clinical practice in individual and family psychotherapy. Drawing on more than two decades of professional and research experience, Vannúzia Leal Andrade Peres explores how psychotherapy, family intervention, and work with children can be understood as spaces for subjective development rather than as applications of predefined diagnostic or technical procedures. The book situates the Theory of Subjectivity within broader debates in Clinical Psychology, psychotherapy, family therapy, psychopathology, and cultural-historical psychology. It critically discusses influential traditions, including psychoanalytic, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, constructivist, and systemic approaches, while examining their implications for understanding human suffering, health, and therapeutic change. Through detailed clinical cases involving mental health, family conflict, family education, and child psychotherapy, the volume illustrates key concepts such as subjectivity, subjective sense, subjective configuration, agency, and the inseparability of the individual and the social. The analyses demonstrate how therapeutic dialogue can contribute to qualitative changes in subjective organization and support the emergence of new forms of personal and relational action. By connecting theory, methodology, and clinical practice, Clinical Practices, Psychotherapy, and Family: Contributions from the Theory of Subjectivity contributes to ongoing discussions on subjectivity, psychotherapy, family studies, and human development. It offers scholars, researchers, and practitioners an in-depth account of how the Theory of Subjectivity can inform the understanding of psychological processes, health, illness, and social change in contemporary clinical contexts. This book’s original manuscript was written in Portuguese and translated into English with the help of artificial intelligence. The author (with the friendly support of André Mols) has subsequently revised the text further in an endeavor to refine the work stylistically.