Contrasting Visions From Milan: Family Typology vs. Systemic Epistemology∗

Abstract

Two basic temperaments among family therapists reflect a tension in the field: the technocratic or technique-oriented temperament and the phenomenological temperament concerned with understanding the family. Two books are reviewed that highlight the tasks of different temperaments. Selvini Palazzoli's current work is examined in a review of her book Family Games in which she attempts to crack the code of gamily interactions by discerning underlying patterns, formulating a typology of family games. Critiques of Selvini Palazzoli's work are examined in the perspective of her essentially phenomenological therapeutic temperament. Boscolo's and Cecchin's book Milan Systemic Family Therapy outlines an epistemology for systemic tools. In its emphasis on a method of interviewing as the Rosetta stone for family work, their approach exemplifies the technocratic therapeutic temperament. Boscolo and Cecchin call themselves systems consultants, de-emphasizing both “family” and “therapy” this transformation of the ther...