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The article discusses the writer's response to Carmel Flaskas' paper on family therapy. The author agrees with Flaskas in the inclusion of attachment theory as a psychoanalytic idea minus any qualification. He notes that Flaskas' idea that power, emotional experience and therapeutic relationship are not met well by systemic understandings. He is not convinced that psychoanalysis has given enough attention to power. He believes in the paradox that man must forget his roots and at the same time continuously renew them.

The article reflects on the psychoanalytic ideas and systemic family therapy. A brief description of work with a family was discussed to prompt the theory discussion on the re-engagement of systemic family therapy with psychoanalytic ideas. It identifies particular ideas from psychoanalysis that may be considered very useful for everyday family therapy practice. Furthermore, a discussion of the current debate about how the use of psychoanalytic ideas in the systemic context of family can, or should, be framed was presented.