You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This was a very brave and painful account of the experience of working with a family at a transitional point in their lives. Drawing on systemic theory and practice, alternative ways of understanding the material will be introduced. However, it is important to recognize that these comments are based on what has been written only. Inevitably, we all choose from a range of options in constructing any narrative of our experience, and it may well be that some of what is discussed has been considered by the authors, but has not been addressed in this paper.
Commenting, firstly, on the level of theory, systemic work focuses primarily on the interaction between family members and/or family and therapist. In drawing on the interplay between container and contained (Bion 1962) the authors highlight a connection with a central aspect of systemic family therapy, that the experience of one person is intimately connected with their relationship to others within their intimate system. However, while Bion focuses on what is happening at an internal intrapsychic level, systems theory attends more to what is happening at an interpersonal level, in the relationship between people.
Emphasis is placed on the family as a psychological entity, where the response of one family member is intimately connected with the response of others. For example,