This classic text poignantly explains how constructing the genogram, or a basic family tree, can help us better understand and mend family relationships and dynamics. Here, readers learn how genograms can reveal a family's history of estrangement, alliance, divorce or suicide, exposing intergenerational patterns that prove more than coincidental. The book sheds light on a range of complex issues such as birth order and sibling rivalry, family myths and secrets, cultural differences, couple relationships and the pivotal role of loss.

In the third edition of this revelatory book "godmother of genograms" Monica McGoldrick and family therapist Tracey Laszloffy focus on aiding readers in their own work to understand their family history and change their role in relationships where there is distance, conflict or cutoff. Readers will also find new and updated material on the intergenerational transmission of trauma; the ramifications of uncovering family secrets via DNA testing and more.