Systems Theory and Family Therapy

A concise, readable introduction to systems theory (and especially second-order cybernetics) with practical applications to family therapy. Systems Theory and Family Therapy: A Primer, Fourth Edition, provides a thorough yet concise explication of systems theory (cybernetics), which is the primary paradigm for the practice of systemic individual, marital, and family therapy. This book provides an overview of the essential concepts of a systems theoretical perspective using families and family therapy in context as examples and illustrations of their application in professional practice. Readers are invited to see themselves as parts of the systems with which they are working, consistent with a second-order cybernetics perspective. This book concludes with more than one hundred examples of how the meta-perspective of systems theory can be used in work with families.

Raphael J. Becvar, retired endowed chair in marital and family therapy, was a licensed psychologist, licensed marriage and family therapist, and an approved supervisor with many years of experience in both academic and private practice contexts. He has authored and coauthored many books and articles in professional journals. His particular focus is on philosophical/metaperspectives on mental health and the practice of therapy and a widely recognized teacher of systems theory and family therapy.
Dorothy Stroh Becvar, professor emerita in the School of Social Work at St. Louis University, was a licensed marital and family therapist and a licensed clinical social worker. She published extensively and presented workshops and taught courses, both nationally and internationally, on a wide variety of topics. She was also president/CEO of the Haelan Centers(R), a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting growth and wholeness in body, mind, and spirit. Dorothy died on August 31, 2021.
Lynne V. Reif, licensed professional counselor, began her career working with at-risk youth in the foster care system. In 2000 she became a middle school counselor and continued in that role until 2023, when she shifted her focus from counseling in schools to writing and training in the areas of systems theory, family therapy, and parent education. Lynne has extensive background in working with children and families and was part of the leadership team that created and ran the Empowering Young Women conferences hosted by the University of Missouri St. Louis for twenty years. In 2012 she traveled to Uganda to coteach a first of its kind course in school counseling to educators there and to work with girls in the schools. This experience significantly expanded her cultural awareness and understanding of the significance of context in the lives of children and families.

Acknowledgments
Foreword-Sally St. George and Dan Wulff
Preface-Raphael J. Becvar
Introduction: How to Use This Book
1 About Theories
2 Systems Theory/Cybernetics: A Paradigm Shift
Modernism
Postmodernism
Constructivism
Social Constructionism
First-Order and Second-Order Cybernetics
3 First-Order Cybernetics: Definitions of Concepts
Boundaries
Communication/Information Processing
Context
Entropy and Negative Entropy
Equifinality
Homeostasis, Morphostasis, and Morphogenesis
Open and Closed Systems
Positive and Negative Feedback
Recursion
Relationship
Wholeness
Summary and Conclusion
4 Second-Order Cybernetics: Definition of Concepts
Autopoiesis
Consensual Domains
Epistemology of Participation
Feedback
Nonpurposeful Drift
Openness and Closedness
Reality as a Multiverse
Structural Coupling
Structural Determinism
Wholeness and Self-Reference
Summary and Conclusion
5 Family Interpretive Systems/Stories
6 Family Development Through the Life Cycle
7 The Family as System
8 A Critique and Defense of the Systems Perspective
9 Patterns to Ponder
Double Messages
Patterns and Paradoxes to Ponder
10 Implications for Family Therapy
Stability and Change
General Principles
Engaging the Family, Assessment, and Therapeutic Goals
Pragmatics
Final Thoughts
11 In Conclusion
References
Index
About the Authors