Abstract
In our contemporary society, the traditional multi-generational family has to adapt and to organize itself around a smaller nucleus: “The nuclear family”. Nowadays, the management of the crises which accompany significant Life Events (such as birth, marriage, retirement, death…) within this new family-system, is refrained by the lack of “relays” which were previously provided by the “enlarged family”.
In the absence of available relatives (that is, grandparents, cousins, etc…), it is now the Medical System which is addressed with the demand for help.
Using worthy contributions of the systemic theories, the authors analyze the ambiguity of such a request and the paradox underlying it, namely, to take care of a “normal” family crisis. They emphasize two major dangers consisting of the “designation” of an identified patient and the risk of “phagocytosis” of the therapeutic system by the family system.