(gulp)

Dad’s Performance Review

It’s a classic trope of American family life: the high-powered executive with a Type A personality who has no problem juggling billion-dollar deals and conference calls in his corner office, but finds himself at a loss when faced with an unhappy spouse or a troubled child at home. Now there is a tonic for this divided soul, beyond the traditional predinner tumbler of Scotch: a cutting-edge management tool that can be used to heal the wounds of the dysfunctional family.

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It is an open question whether the mysterious complexities of family life pondered by Tolstoy and Freud and Updike can really be reduced to the jargon of management theory. But with Family360, the misunderstood child of the cold father (think James Dean in ”Rebel Without a Cause,” crying ”You’re tearing me apart!” to Jim Backus) is at least able to get through to Dad in a language he can understand: the spiralbound executive summary.