Systemic psychology studies the phenomena of relationship and group communication, analyzing the relationships and components that arise from them. This approach comes from individual people, who link each other in different groups understood as systems.
In this way, each group/collective in which each person relates is a different system: family, professional, domestic?
- In fact.
- This current part of the context taking into account the different areas in which people evolve.
- Because the way each individual relates to the environment around them determines their personal development and growth.
For this reason, systemic psychology can be applied to couples, work teams and families as well as individuals.
Next, we will discuss how this approach was born and what it consists of, that is, the principles by which it is governed.
Systemic psychology is a current based on the general theory of Bertalanffy’s systems, which began to develop in the second half of the twentieth century.
In his theory, Bertalanffy emphasized the concept of interaction, stating that a system implies an interdependence between the parties or people involved in the relationship. It should be noted that the concept of system is part of general system theory.
At the same time, the onset of systemic therapy is associated with anthropologist Gregory Bateson and his team at Palo Alto Administrative Hospital, who have partnered with other researchers, such as Jackson, Haley and Weakland, to analyze the communication system of schizophrenic families.
From Bateson’s research came the theory of double bonding, which contributed to the foundations of systemic psychology. A double link is a communication dilemma resulting from the contradiction between two or more messages, i. e. contradictory messages are sent.
It is clear that the phenomenon of human communication is one of the objects of analysis of systemic therapy, it should be noted that some of the fundamentals of this trend are due to Paul Watzlawick and his theory of human communication, which addresses issues related to the pragmatic of communication, taking into account the effects of communication on behavior.
Here are the fundamental and relevant aspects of systemic psychology
For this chain, the system is considered a whole, because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so systemic psychology emphasizes the properties of the whole that results from the interaction of the different elements of the system. the important thing is the relationship that arises from the interaction of people.
The different systems (family, friends, partners, colleagues?) They are linked in a contextual framework, in which people’s roles and behaviors are determined by thecited rules of this system and by the interaction between their members. attention to these roles and behaviors.
Systemic psychology is based on a circular and multicausal perspective, so linear markers cannot be established when there is only one cause, on the contrary, there are several causal factors: each action and reaction continuously changes the nature of the context.
In a family, for example, members react to the same fact in different ways, changing the final situation, which is the combination of all the different reactions that can occur.
In this sense, Paul Watzlawick was a pioneer in distinguishing this circular causality from events to explain possible repetitive patterns of interactions between people.
In summary, the circular vision of problems is marked by how the behavior of an individual influences the actions of others and how others influence the behavior of the first.
As mentioned above, Watzlawick was one of the great representatives of systemic psychology in presenting his theory of communication, which is considered a key factor in the therapeutic process; for the systemic therapist, communication is an important point to work with and analyze.
Each system has rules that the systemic therapist must know to intervene in them if they are not appropriate, the way we communicate, depending on this current, determines whether the problem to be treated is maintained or reduced.
In conclusion, systemic psychology offers another perspective of difficulties and problems, in which the relationship between the individual prevails as a focus of intervention.
From different researches, several branches and schools have emerged within systemic therapy, which differ in small details. These are: MRI Interactional School, Structural and Strategic School, Milan Systemic School?
“All behavior is communication, including silence. ” -Watzlawick-