Abstract: The fundamentals of family therapy are examined, focusing on the changeable and correctable features of familylife and based on the propositions that human beings are flexible and that adults affect both their own and their children's behavior. A family is a "factory" where people are made. Troubles arise in four areas: self-worth, communication, rules, and the links to society. Regardless of the family structure (natural, single-parent, adoptive parent, foster parent, or institutional), specific domestic problems fall into one of the four trouble areas and can be corrected accordingly. Talking and listening, communication paths, rule origin and flexibility, the extended family, and the family structures of the future are explored. In addressing aspects of family problems, exercises and examples are included to allow families to criticize their own behavior.