Play and liberty: A brief incursion into some ideological currents in the history of systems‐oriented family therapy

Abstract

We reflect on family therapy and its history from two points of view, as an entity that becomes understood with the help of a twofold concept of a game, and a twofold concept of liberty. Systemic family therapy has always been comprehended with the help of game theory. Its development becomes more properly understood if we keep in mind that game itself is a dualistic concept entailing both a cultural and a logico‐mathematical interpretation of a game. We show how cultural ethos has molded the ways how game metaphor have been implemented to systemic thinking. In the same manner we show how Isaiah Berlin's idea of two incompatible concepts of liberty helps to contextualize family therapy in a way that its connections to sociopolitical theories of liberty become obvious. We believe that we have been able to demonstrate, how this twofold recontextualisation enriches the understanding of the ideological history of the family therapy. We claim that our reflections imply that family therapy is essentially a dualistic endeavor, that in the amid of it is a rift that cannot become repaired but only contemplated, that integrity of family therapy requires that we preserve both conflictual views, and don't try to simplify situation by abandoning one or the other. As a result, our article intends to develop further and deepen the idea that is originally presnted in the article "Strategy and intervention or non‐intervention: A matter of theory" by Harold Goolishian and Harlene Anderson.

The philosophical and historical context of Bion's concept of reverie and its use as a rhetorical act in his theory of psychoanalysis

“…Although, Bergson's thinking was devalued in philosophical circles after the Second World War, 9 this was partly due to his scientific reputation and partly to the post‐war scientific atmosphere, which looked unfavourably on views that sounded obscure, mystical and unscientific. As we have argued earlier, it was an era impregnated with a limitless belief in the rational superiority and capability of the human intellect to solve in the same manner all the problems that humankind would ever face (Sampolahti & Laitila, 2022). Despite this, Bergson's views have continued, in the shadows, to fertilize philosophy, especially the work of his fellow French philosopher Gaston Bachelard.…”