ABSTRACT
In the early 1980s, different schools of therapy began sharing a common trend. On the one hand, several individual therapists, such as psychoanalysts, cognitivists, and Ericksonian therapists, began to show interest in family and couple therapy, some of them taking inspiration from the strategic-systemic models. Similarly, several systemic family therapists, who previously had focused on the relational system between members of a family or a couple, started paying attention also to the members themselves, i.e. to individuals. The new interest in the individual necessitated a rethinking about theory and praxis, especially by those who worked in the field of family therapy. Gregory Bateson's cybernetic epistemology had previously provided a basis for the work of most family and couple therapists. With regard to theory, constructivism can be related to cognitivism, which is a theory of individual psychology, while constructionism can be associated with social psychology.
