Ecosystemic Epistemology: Critical Implications for the Aesthetics and Pragmatics of Family Therapy

1 March 1982

journal article
Published by Wiley in Family Process

Vol. 21 (1) , 1-19
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1545-5300.1982.00001.x

Abstract

This paper proposes that family therapy be responsive to both aesthetic and pragmatic considerations. Ecosystemic epistemology, a framework of ideas based on cybernetics, ecology, and systems theory, is suggested as a way of encompassing these different perspectives. Several critical ideas, often ignored by an overemphasis on pragmatics, involve: (a) the function of language in the relation between epistemology and clinical practice; (b) healthy and pathological family ecologies; (c) art and technique in therapy; and (d) the issue of manipulation.

Keywords

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:

Cognitive styles in personal and cultural adaptation: Herman A. Witkin (Clark University Press, 1978)
Art Psychotherapy, 1979
Ecosystemic Epistemology: An Alternative Paradigm for Diagnosis
Family Process, 1979
In praise of muddleheaded anecdotalism
Western Journal of Speech Communication, 1978
Families and Family Therapy
Published by Harvard University Press ,1974