Dinámicas Ocultas: Culture and Psy‐Sociality in Mexican Family Constellations Therapy

Abstract

This article takes the ethnographic case of Family Constellations therapy in Oaxaca, Mexico, to demonstrate how a nonnative therapeutic practice articulates with local cultural frameworks to foster novel forms of therapeutic experience and sociality. Family Constellations in Oaxaca promotes particular forms of what I call “psy‐sociality,” or sociality generated by globalizing psy concepts, diagnoses, and practices, which produce new sites for self‐work and subject‐formation, but also for jointly processing social suffering, familial conflict, and psychological distress in culturally salient ways. First, participants socialize in a structured way that promotes embodied connection to others. Second, participants are socialized into gendered ways of speaking, knowing, interpreting, and acting upon the self and the family. Finally, participants are also given explicit guidance for how to confront current sociofamilial conflicts with which they are grappling. In the process, participants localize this foreign therapy according to the context of present‐day Mexico. [healing, globalization, family, sociality, self, Mexico] Este artículo toma el caso etnográfico de la terapia de Constelaciones Familiares en Oaxaca, México, para demostrar cómo una práctica terapéutica no originaria del lugar se articula con marcos culturales locales para fomentar nuevas formas de sociabilidad y experiencia terapéutica. La terapia de Constelaciones Familiares en Oaxaca promueve formas particulares de lo que yo llamo “psicosocialidad”, o socialidad generada por la globalización de conceptos, diagnósticos y prácticas psicológicas que producen nuevos escenarios para el trabajo con uno mismo y la formación de sujetos, pero también para procesar de manera conjunta el sufrimiento social, los conflictos familiares y la angustia psicológica en formas culturalmente notables. En primer lugar, los participantes socializan en una forma estructurada que promueve la conexión corporal con otros. En segundo lugar, los participantes son socializados a través de maneras de hablar, conocer, interpretar y actuar con respecto a sí mismos y a la familia relacionadas con el género. Por último, los participantes también reciben instrucciones explícitas sobre cómo confrontar conflictos sociofamiliares actuales con los que están lidiando. En el proceso, los participantes adaptan esta terapia extranjera al contexto del México actual.

Culture inside: Scale, intimacy, and chronotopic stance in situated narratives

“…Psychospiritual development is a growing industry that overlaps with what has been called the ‘psychoboom’ in contemporary China (Huang 2014; Kuan 2015; Yang 2018). In this particular project, Pritzker attended numerous events, including both multiple-day workshops and evening ‘salons’ focused on helping participants—many of whom belonged to the rising middle class in China—connect to their inner child (Bradshaw 1990; Ivy 1993; Pritzker 2016) and guiding them through personal emotional struggles through family constellation therapy (Cohen 2006; Duncan 2017; Pritzker & Duncan 2019). 1 She also conducted interviews with upwards of eighty workshop participants and leaders, all of which were professionally transcribed by a native speaker and then analyzed.…”

Possibilities and Challenges in Providing Psychotherapeutic Interventions to Meet the Needs of the Latinx Population in the United States

“…In the 1990s, FCT was created by Bert Hellinger, a German priest who spent 16 years with the South African Zulus where he learned their language, worldview, and the use of ancestral reverence. He later trained in psychoanalysis and other therapy models, eventually creating a modality that is rooted in family systems theory, incorporates the ancestral reverence of the South African Zulus, raises awareness of collective traumas and connection to the body, to bring healing of transgenerational traumas and conflicts (Cohen 2006;Duncan 2017;Longo-Lockspeiser 2018). In a family constellation, an individual addresses a current issue by connecting with the ancestral field to uncover trans-generational situations they are not aware of.…”

“…The study found that family constellation seminars improved psychological functioning at eight and twelve-month follow ups. Because family constellations focus on the individual while still incorporating the family and utilizing important aspects of indigenous traditions, Duncan (2017) suggests that family constellation therapy is a better fit for Oaxaca, Mexico (an area with a significant and diverse indigenous population) than traditional forms of psychotherapy. Family constellation therapy promotes "a type of self-knowing by articulating with local cultural frameworks and forms of sociality that allows participants to work within the matrix of intergenerational familial life" (Duncan 2017, p. 491).…”

Constelaciones Familiares: ¿Psicoterapia o pseudoterapia? Revisión de la literatura desde la filosofía de la ciencia

“…También, Stiefel, Harris, Zollmann, (2002) expresan directamente que no está guiada por lógica o razonamiento, pues la técnica requiere una experiencia sensorial preconceptual, y considera al individuo conectado con planos espirituales superiores. La premisa principal de las CF se centra identificar lealtades inconscientes a nuestros antepasados, explicadas por dinámicas ocultas y conflictos transgeneracionales (Duncan, 2017). Dentro sus conceptos, existen nociones encontradas que corresponden a explicar el "enredo familiar" influido por un campo energético, siendo símil, al concepto de inconsciente colectivo (Salters, 2013).…”