Week 1: Introduction to Systemic Practice Flashcards
What was Gregory Bateson’s quote?
“There are times when I catch myself believing that there is such as thing as something, which is separate from something else…”
What is Epistemology according to Winek?
Epistemology is a brach of philosophy that concerns itself with the nature of reality. It seeks to answer the philosophic question. What sort of world is this? These assumptions are often taken for granted, seen as truths and not clearly stated’
How does an epistemological position become a therapeutic techniques?
Epistemological position -> theoretical assumptions -> practice principles -> therapeutic techniques
What are the 4 epistemological positions?
Linear
Systemic
Constructivist
Social constructionist
Linear Epistemology
Post systemic
The observer can know the external world directly via observation and analysis of its essential parts
Systemic Epistemology
The world is knowable only as a complex network of mutually interacting parts and Holon’s. To understand the part I must understand the whole.
Constructivist Epistemology
We are unable to know reality directly, what we perceive is limited by our perceptual apparatus we construct models internally
Social Constructionist Epistemology
Post-systemic
There is not objective observer, human systems are essentially language systems. There is no truth only differing perspectives as meaning is socially constructed.
What is the linear (pre-systemic) paradigm grounded in?
Grounded in the intellectual tradition of Modernism - The world out there (reality) can be known directly as separate from the observer
How did Rene-Descartes perceive the world with regards to the linear paradigm?
Separation of mind & matter, perceived the world as a machine which could be understood by analysing its smallest parts
What formed the foundation of the scientific paradigm?
Nertonian physics
What Epistemology paradigm is associated with the scientific paradigm?
The linear paradigm
What does the linear paradigm understand causality as?
the linear paradigm is understanding the causality as linear. i.e. particular separate causes lead to predictable outcomes. This is one way and does not study interactions
what did the linear paradigm lead to?
increased specialisation and isolation between areas of knowledge.
Also leads to reductionist ideas about intervention and change i.e. if I do this then it will fix the problem.
Tends to lead to singular perspectives and explanations
What is an example of linear thinking in psychotherapy?
“An early child hood trauma (cause) results in a mental illness (effect), asks the ‘why’ questions and tends to focus on the past
What does the linear paradigm internalise?
Pathology. I.e. understands the problem as within the individual
What did Ludwig Von Bertalanffy say regarding the linear paradigm?
The analytic, mechanist, one way causal paradigm of classical science assumes that reality can be quantifiably analyzed; that a whole can be understood in terms of its parts; and the nature and function of a substance or organism can be comprehended by reducing it to its material externally observable components…”
What did Ervin Laszlo say about the linear paradigm?
We are drilling holes in the walls of a mystery that we call nature and reality on many locations, and we carry out delicate analyses on each of these sites. But it is not only now that we are beginning to realise the need for connecting the probes with one another and gaining some coherent insight into what is there”
Where did the General systems theory emerge?
Emerged across disciplines with figures such as Ludwig and Bertalanffy (biologist) and Gregory Bateson (anthroplogist) looking for general principles that governed all Systems
How did Marco Devries define a system?
A system could be defined as an organised whole - ‘a complex, mutual influence relationship of parts following a design or order. For Example, the difference between the piles of materials and a house’
