Aesthetics of Change

by Keeney, Bradford P.

• ISBN13: 9781572308305
• ISBN10: 1572308303
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-22
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

The fundamental concern of psychotherapy is change. While practitioners are constantly greeted with new strategies, techniques, programs, and interventions, this book argues that the full benefits of the therapeutic process cannot be realized without fundamental revision of the concept of change itself. Applying cybernetic thought to family therapy, Bradford P. Keeney demonstrates that conventional epistemology, in which casue and effect have a linear relationship, does not sufficiently accommodate the reciprocal nature of causation in experience. Written in an unconventional style that includes stories, case examples, and imagined dialogues between an epistemologist and a skeptical therapist, the volume presents a philosophically grounded, ecological framework for contemporary clinical practice.

Author Biography

Bradford P. Keeney, PhD, has worked at some of the most respected psychotherapy centers in the United States, including the Ackerman Institute in New York City, the Karl Menninger Center in Topeka, and the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic. He has served as Director of clinical doctoral programs at Texas Tech University and Nova University, and as Director of Scholarly Studies at the University of St. Thomas. He is the author of numerous classic works in the field of family therapy.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(11)
Fundamentals of Epistemology	12	(49)
Alternative Epistemologies	12	(6)
Laws of Form	18	(6)
Punctuation	24	(5)
Orders of Recursion	29	(8)
Double Description	37	(7)
Constructing a Reality	44	(4)
Discussion	48	(13)
Cybernetic Epistemology	61	(49)
Simple Cybernetics	64	(9)
Cybernetics of Cybernetics	73	(4)
Self-Reference	77	(5)
Autonomy	82	(5)
Dialectic of Calibration and Feedback	87	(5)
Cybernetic Complementarities	92	(3)
Discussion	95	(15)
A Cybernetic Description of Family Therapy	110	(40)
Patterns of Distinction	110	(6)
Cybernetic Systems	116	(6)
Pathology and Health	122	(7)
Therapist	129	(5)
Ecology	134	(8)
Discussion	142	(8)
Cybernetics of Therapeutic Change	150	(37)
Modeling Pattern	151	(4)
Orders of Learning	155	(5)
Unconscious Process	160	(8)
Sociofeedback	168	(6)
Discussion	174	(13)
An Aesthetic Base for Family Therapy	187	(15)
Conscious Purpose	187	(4)
Art and Craft	191	(1)
Practice	192	(3)
Stories: The Royal Road to Epistemology	195	(2)
A Beginning	197	(2)
Discussion	199	(3)
References	202	(7)
Author Index	209	(4)
Subject Index	213