Systems theory can be a useful way of understanding the incredible complexity we confront in living today. Gregory Bateson, a famous systems philosopher, maintained that ignorance of the context of our lives is the biggest error in our thinking today. He meant that we fail to appreciate our complex and multiple relationships to the world. Our psychological and organizational theories, for example, often ignore the vast social, physical, and other energies and influences within which we live. As our world becomes more socially complex, it becomes more difficult to manage, and our ability even to influence social and political events diminishes. To our peril, we were educated to think mainly in a linear and not a systemic way. Part One, applying systemic thinking to the individual and the family, briefly outlines some principles about how the family is a system with both psychological and somatic influences upon us.
Dr. David Freeman’s article, “Multigenerational Family Therapy,” outlines the core principles that guide his work, and also the mental health professional training at the Pacific Coast Family Therapy Training Association and PACE, a therapeutic play school for three- to five-year-olds. There we integrate family systems therapy with art and play to help children and their families. As a consultant to PACE, I have also been introducing concepts and interventions relating to early psychomotor development, learned through my studies with the Bodynamic Institute in Copenhagen. Lisbeth Marcher, the founder of this system, and Marianne Bentzen, senior trainer, have generously contributed time to this endeavor. The principles of Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing Model have also been helpful. Both Marcher’s and Levine’s work will be explored further in Part Four.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. David Freeman for the contribution he has made to my view of the family system. As a mentor, friend, and colleague, he has not only expanded my view of the family system, he has also greatly enriched my life.
“Expanding the Field of Family Therapy” is an article that, in fact, reflects on the ideas and practical steps in Dr. Freeman’s approach to inviting elders into the therapeutic process—in a way that uses their oral history of the family as an adjunct to therapy.
The final article, “The Narrative of the Body-Mind—Minding the Body,” suggests how a broadly systemic perspective can begin to integrate body-mind approaches (in this case Bodynamics) with family-of-origin theories and practices.