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This book has been hailed by the field of family therapy as a muchneeded, timely, and important contribution. Lynn Hoffman is a recognized authority and leader. She attempts, as the title states, the overwhelming task of establishing foundations for family therapy through her conceptualization of systems and how to effect their change. In her conclusions she does not take an even-handed, broad perspective of apparently conflicting theories. Contrary to promotional statements, this book is not a synthesis of contemporary family therapy. It is a clearly and unequivocally presented synthesis of her own ideas, of what the present and future foundations of family therapy should be. Her incisive approach is to be respected and valued. It contributes to clarification of the reader's thinking. Whether her position turns out to be the wave of the future or just a current hobby horse will be known at some later date.
Epistemology is of great importance to Hoffman. In this emphasis, she follows Gregory Bateson's intensely moral concern for it and definition of it—the rules one uses for making sense out of the world. Hoffman's epistemology of family therapy starts with the idea of circularity as opposed to lineal cause-effect relations (as she labels the psychodynamic approach). The concept of circularity includes homeostatic and evolutionary paradigms. The homeostatic paradigm was the early (1950-1980) major systems model for the field of family therapy. Its emphasis was on homeostasis and equilibrium as illustrated by the cybernetic machine which always returns to a presumed steady state. This model was in keeping with the second law of thermodynamics. The evolutionary paradigm is a new template. Relevant to family theory, it considers living systems as having the capability of mutating to more complex organized regimes through small, usually random fluctuations. It is a model of nonequilibrium dynamics. It believes that the form which results from this proce