Abandoning our parents and grandparents: does social construction mean the end of systemic family therapy?

Abstract

This paper explores how ideas from first‐ and second‐order cybernetics may be incorporated into the contemporary interest in social constructionist perspectives. We argue that it is possible to contemplate a third‐order cybernetics which incorporates ideas from systems theory and social constructionism and that this may capture the reality of the ‘hands‐on’ integration of ideas that many practitioners are currently exploring. A framework consisting of eight connecting threads is proposed as a way of helping us to clarify the continuities and discontinuities between the original and contemporary ideas. It is argued that this is an important and potentially useful endeavour, since many practitioners use a mixture of ideas and techniques in an eclectic way but are wary of potential criticisms of being ‘linear’, ‘expert’, ‘manipulative’ and ‘non‐collaborative’. A case study is offered to illustrate a ‘hands‐on’ integration of contemporary and pioneering ideas and to invite discussion of how concepts and techniques from first‐ , second‐ and the new ‘third‐order’ cybernetics influenced by social constructionism might be further integrated.