Theorizing About Power: Intersecting the Ideas of Foucault with the “Problem” of Power in Family Therapy

Abstract

How to theorize about power has been a controversial issue in systemic family therapy, which, in its understanding of power, has shown the legacy of Gregory Bateson's ideas in terms of its earlier censorship of the concept of power as well as in the way in which the more recent challenges continue to be framed in relation to Bateson's position. This essay examines the work of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, and his ideas on power in relation to family therapy themes. The main aim in intersecting Foucault's ideas with the "problem" of power in family therapy is to shed a different light on the way in which family therapy has theorized about power. A strong point of connection is made between Foucault's commitment to a relational analysis of power and family therapy's commitment to recursive analysis. However, a number of major contrasts are also identified. These contrasts are used to underline the need for family therapy to abandon the restrictions of Bateson's ideas on power, and to tackle the task of developing and using a recursive understanding of power.