In many families, there’s a shared but unspoken understanding about who they collectively consider “the problem.” It might be the teenager acting out, the parent with depression or the sibling struggling with addiction. In clinical terms, that person is often called the “designated patient” or “identified patient” — the individual whose behavior, emotions, or symptoms are seen as the root of the family’s distress. But as family therapists emphasize, this role rarely forms in a vacuum. The