There are some great ideas in here still, and the dialogue format is very engaging and easy to read, but reading it from thirty-ish years later, be prepared to discard a lot as you go.

The dialogue aims to lay out what Cleese learnt and what Skynner, I guess, hoped to convey to his patients about the dynamics of the human mind and family life in the course of therapy.

Guiding us through the daily issues that confront us all, FAMILIES AND HOW TO SURVIVE THEM offers vital advice in helping each of us to maintain a happy, healthy family life. I remember reading this book years ago and finding the discussions of how and why we replicate family relationships and how we are drawn to people hiding the same problems as ourselves fascinating. Some reviews pick up on the old fashioned family roles and strict parenting style advocated by Skynner, who of course argues this just reflects his years of clinical experience, but then again, this is a book from the early 80s, so his experience was from working with couples and families in the 60s and 70s, so the adults will have reached maturity in the 40s and 50s, and only a few in the 60s, so unsurprisingly the feedback from Skynner's practise will seem to the younger reader rather conservative.

A logical development was the emergence of the Institute of Group Analysis for the specific purpose of giving training in group therapy. This book will open your eyes to the way in which families work, but as I've already indicated, it shouldn't be read just the once.In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. This isn't a stereotypical self-help type of book and that makes it THE book that could save your marriage and/or the way you relate to your children.