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Clinical research with the family has undergone relevant changes through time under an epistemological, theoretical, methodological and technical point of view. By rebuilding the main steps of such development, we will try to bring to the fore issues and problems that are at the centre of the present debate (researches untied from the theoretical model, mix-ups in logics between built-ups and levels of analysis, risks of over-interpretation on the basis of individual parameters) and the solutions put forward by those models that try and come back to a holistic vision of the family as research “object-subject.” Finally, we’ll propose research paths able to combine a complex.” Finally, we’ll propose research paths able to combine a complex. Finally, we’ll propose research paths able to combine a complex vision with empirically validated models, observation methods with self-observation methods.