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Educatorsfrequently consider live supervision as the method of choice in facilitating an epistemological shift for family therapy graduate students. In this article, excerpts from a novel serve as an additional training tool to enhance graduate students' understanding of complex systemic approaches to therapeutic interaction. Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet reveals epistemological concepts relevant to family therapy in its portrayal of the richness of multiple voices and a lack of certainty about predictable outcomes. Family therapy doctoral students studied a didactic module based upon passages from the Quartet; descriptive evaluation of this particular training experience suggests how literature can be useful in facilitating an epistemological shift that is often a challenge to family therapy graduate students and educators.Once upon a time, in a freshman English class, my instructor turned me on to The Alexandria Quartet, a captivating tetralogy by Lawrence Durrell (1 961 a, 1961b, 1961c, 1961d). This intriguing story, told from multiple perspective and time sequences, became a prime source of enlightenment as I embarked upon my adult life. Little did I know that rereading the Quartet 20 years later would provide a relationship between literature and family therapy as I struggled to assimilate new epistemological concepts from course work and live supervision during my doctoral training. An integral part of my studies involved reading Gregory Bateson's (1972) ideas about the corrective aspect of aesthetic formats in Steps to an Ecology of Mind and seminar discussions about isolated versus integrated ways of knowing. I flashed back on the Quartet as an illustrative example of what I was learning, found gaps in my understanding, and thereby enhanced my grasp of family therapy. How and to what degree, I wondered afterward, would this and other literature benefit students similarly experiencing an epistemological shift.

Discussion of the inherent value of youngsters' play highlights significant factors to consider when interacting with children in a variety of contexts. Appropriate play activities can provide optimal opportunities for healthy cognitive and socioemotional development. Presentation of several case examples illustrates the importance of integrating play in child development programs. PHILOSOPHICAL RATIONALEThis author regards play as the most complete of all possible educational processes. A child's play is a way of exploring and experimenting while building relations with the world and self. At play, a youngster learns to learn, discovers how to come to terms with others, cope with tasks, and master skills. A playing child is selfdirected, involved, and absorbed. A child's natural inclination to play This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

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