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FAMILY THERAPY

The document discusses various theories and concepts related to family therapy, including cybernetics, systems theory, social constructionism, and attachment theory. It emphasizes the importance of feedback loops, communication patterns, and the influence of cultural context on family dynamics. Additionally, it highlights the significance of understanding family structure, boundaries, and developmental stages in addressing family dysfunction.

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tanvi.karulkar
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4 views

FAMILY THERAPY

The document discusses various theories and concepts related to family therapy, including cybernetics, systems theory, social constructionism, and attachment theory. It emphasizes the importance of feedback loops, communication patterns, and the influence of cultural context on family dynamics. Additionally, it highlights the significance of understanding family structure, boundaries, and developmental stages in addressing family dysfunction.

Uploaded by

tanvi.karulkar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FAMILY THERAPY

 CYBERNETICS- Norbert wiener


 Study of feedback mechanisms
 Core of cybernetics- feedback loop- sys gets info necessary to maintain a steady course
 FL- Can be positive or negative
 basic circularity involved in a feedback loop. Each element has an effect on the next, until
the last element “feeds back” the cumulative effect into the first part of the cycle.
 positive feedback can have desirable or undesirable consequences. If left unchecked, the
reinforcing effects of positive feedback tend to com pound a system’s errors, leading to a
runaway process.
 Positive- reinforces direction a system is taking
 Negative- need to get system back on track- overempahasized negative feedback and
resistance to change
 Cybernetics focuses on:
 Family rules
 -ve feedback to enforce rules
 Sequences of interactions
 What happens when -ve loop is ineffective
 Self fulfilling prophecy and bandwagon effect- positive
 positive feedback loops aren’t always bad; if they don’t get out of hand, they can help
systems adjust to changed circumstances.
 Family cyberneticians focused on the feedback loops within families, otherwise known as
patterns of communi cation, as the fundamental source of family dysfunction.
 SYSTEMS THEORY- two part equation- Sequences of interaction reveal how systems
function (1940’s)
 System- organized assemblage of parts forming a whole
 Properties- relationship among it’s parts
 General Systems Theory In the 1940s, an Austrian biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy
 Every system is a subsys tem of larger systems. But family therapists tended to forget this
spreading network of influence. They treated the family as a system while largely ignoring
the larger systems of com munity, culture, and politics in which families are embedded.
 Family systems change whenever necessary to adapt to new circumstances-
Morphogenesis- plastic quality of adaptive systems
 SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM-
 how family members’ beliefs affect their actions, and how cultural forces shape those
beliefs.
 Constructivism captured the imagination of family thera pists in the 1980s-brain doesn’t
process images literally, like a camera, but rather registers experience in patterns organized
by the nervous system.1 Nothing is perceived directly. Everything is fil tered through the
mind of the observer.
 Kant argued, our minds are anything but blank. They are active filters through which we
process and interpret the world.
 personal construct theory of George Kelly (1955). According to Kelly, we make sense of the
world by creating our own constructs of the environment-
 We interpret, organize events and make predictions that guide our actions on basis of
these construct
 Because we may need to adjust constructs, therapy became a matter of revising old
constructs and developing new ones— new label will alter their view point and lead to a
more effective response.
 onstructivism says that we relate to the world on the basis of our own interpretations.
Social constructionism points out that those interpretations are shaped by our context.
 Therapy then becomes a process of deconstruction— freeing clients from the tyranny of
entrenched beliefs- narrative (externalization) and solution focused therapy(what ppl do
when they don’t have a problem)
 Constructivists- subjective mind
 Social constructionists- intersubjective influence of language and culture
 ATTACHMENT THEORY- The notion that how couples deal with each other reflects their
attachment history can be traced to the pio neering studies of John Bowlby and Mary
Ainsworth- Harry Harlow- infant monkeys prefer the cloth-covered “mothers” that
provided contact comfort to the wire-mesh “mothers” that provided food. Human babies,
too, become attached to people who don’t feed them
 oung children who were separated from their mothers go through a series of reactions that
can be described as protest, despair, and finally detachment
 If a child’s caregivers are generally unavailable or unresponsive to the child’s needs, that
child develops a sense of shame around those needs; such children doubt the validity of
their needs and feel bad for having them. They also come to believe that others cannot be
depended on. They develop an insecure attachment (Bowlby, 1988). Insecure attachment
generally falls into two categories: anxious and avoidant.
 Anxiously attached- overprotective and intrusive parents/difficult to identify what they
truly feel/depression and anxiety-give in to others demands
 Avoidantly attached- emotionally unavailable parents/avoid pain of
rejection/distant/aloof/
 Secure attachment- basic security/confident in availability of caregivers/confident in
interactions
 Insecure- poisons child's self-confidence/unresponsive to child's needs/shame around
those needs/feel bad for having them (Anxious and avoidant)

FAMILY THERAPY

 fundamental premise of family therapy is that peo ple are products of their context
 Complementarity refers to the reci procity that is the defining feature of every
relationship- influence each other
 With the concept of circularity, Bateson helped change the way we think about
psychopathology, from something caused by events in the past to something that is
part of ongoing, circular feedback loops.
 The original action prompts a circular sequence in which each subse quent action
recursively affects the other. Linear cause and effect is lost in a circle of mutual
influence.
 Relationship problems often turn out to be triangular (Bowen, 1978), even though it
may not always be apparent
 Focusing on the process of communication (how people talk), rather than its content
(what they talk about), may be the single most productive shift a family therapist can
make.
 Structure- organization within which interactions take place/ Interactions shape
structure. . Families are structured in subsystems— determined by generation, gender,
and function—which are demarcated by interpersonal boundaries, invisible barriers
that regulate the amount of contact with others
 problems result when boundaries are either too rigid or too diffuse. Rigid boundaries
permit little contact with outside sys tems, resulting in disengagement. Disengagement
leaves people independent but isolated; it fosters autonomy but limits affection and
nurture. Enmeshed subsystems have diffuse boundaries: They offer access to support
but at the expense of independence. Enmeshed parents are loving and attentive;
however, their children tend to be dependent and may have trouble relating to people
outside their family. Enmeshed parents respond too quickly to their children;
disengaged parents respond too slowly.
 The cycle of human life may be orderly, but it’s not a steady, continuous process. We
progress in stages with plateaus and develop mental hurdles that demand change.
Periods of growth and change are followed by periods of relative stability during which
changes are consolidated
 fam must reorganize to accomodate growth
 dev in any fam gen impacts one or all fam members
 Evelyn Duvall and Reuben Hill applied a developmental framework to families in the
1940s by divid ing family life into discrete stages with tasks to be performed at each
stage (Duvall, 1957; Hill & Rodgers, 1964). Fam ily therapists Betty Carter and Monica
McGoldrick (1980, 1999) enriched this framework by adding a multigenera tional point
of view, recognizing culturally diverse patterns and considering stages of divorce and
remarriage
 Families with problems come to therapy with defeatist narratives that tend to keep
them from acting effectively
 , it is a mistake to assume that members of the same culture necessarily share values
and assumptions

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