John H. Weakland: An Interview in Retrospect

Abstract

John Weakland was one of a handful of irreplaceable figures in the development of Communication/Interactional Theory, Family and Brief Therapy. The first person asked by Gregory Bateson to join his now famous Palo Alto research Group, Weakland's quiet influence, through his contributions to communication theory (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956, 1963) and pioneering work in cultural anthropology (Weakland, 1946, 1951), had a pervasive effect in family and brief therapy (Weakland, 1960; Weakland, Fisch, Watzlawick, & Bodin, 1974; Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974). In a remarkably generative 50-plus-year career, Weakland was mentor to a veritable who's who Brief Therapy including Jim Coyne, Jim Duvall, Steve deShazer, Insoo Kim Berg, and many others. In 1995 during the final days of his life John participated in a series of interviews. Following is an edited transcript of those conversations.