The Dark Side of Family Communication

by Loreen N. Olson, Elizabeth A. Baiocchi-Wagner, Jessica M. Wilson-Kratzer

This text provides for the first time in book form an exploration of the communicative aspects of the darker side of family life, ranging from, for example, severe acts of violence to more subtle forms of conflict. In addition to offering a working definition of the concept of the "dark side" in the family context, the authors propose the Darkness Model of Family Communication that integrates relevant literature in new and significant ways. Researchers, teachers and advanced students alike will benefit from the holistic and theoretical approach to the topic advanced through this volume. Readers are also encouraged to process the material by reviewing discussion questions and the case study of the Moore family at the end of each chapter.Chapter topics include: an overview of the "dark side" of family communicationindividual influences on the darkness of family communicationthe dark side of dyadic family lifefamilial interaction structure and the dark sidedark family communication in a context of darkness - socio-cultural influences on family lifeconcluding reflections on the study of dark family communication

"The Dark Side of Family Communication" offers an integrative understanding of the dark side of family communication and a theoretical mechanism for understanding related scholarship. It will be essential reading for all students and scholars of family communication.

Genres: Read For School

216 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2012

Reviews

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Olson's The Dark Side of Family Communication serves well as an introductory book to the subject matter. Readers should bear in mind that this book barely touches the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dark family communication. Furthermore, I strongly disagree with the treatment of psychological personality profiling in chapter two. For example, introversion is no longer synonymous with shyness. Olson uses these words interchangeably, which is narrow minded. Grievances aside, this book is an adequate, accessible introduction to dark side family communication. If you like what you read here, I would encourage you to seek out more material on a deeper and/or wider breadth.

[Ebony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because the book is titled The Dark Side of Communication, I expected it to be darker, sexier. I admit; holding that expectation for a textbook is decidedly unfair but a survey of darkness can’t go into depth about anything. It’s almost a meta-book wherein they write about the contributing factors to darkness but don’t really discuss darkness itself. I also got the impression that the authors were stretching—and this is a problem with family communication literature in general—there’s not a whole lot that makes it unique. Most of the models and processes apply to either communication at large or family at large and family communication is the developing field trying to find its way. On the upside, this book offers a pretty comprehensive survey of the stuff that’s been written up to 2012 so it’s a good resource but it really isn’t engaging enough for me to assign to my students. It’s well written and very well organized, but it isn’t interesting. Perhaps more application would have been good and more in depth discussions of the shades of darkness as opposed to a survey. I definitely don’t regret reading it but I can’t see myself assigning it.