ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the various components that make up systems so that people have a foundation of understanding family process when working with families. Systems theory was primarily introduced into psychotherapy through the work of Gregory Bateson and his application of cybernetics to humans and families. While not all family therapists utilize the cybernetic metaphor, many of the models of family therapy have aspects of cybernetics as foundational concepts. The family therapist should be able to hear the family's presenting concern yet expand the scope of the problem externalizing the problem from a trait of an individual to a transactional pattern between several people. The family's homeostasis processes are best seen using a circular epistemology where mutuality between members demonstrates the interconnectedness of people and the development and maintenance of symptoms. The family's functioning level is predicated on the patterned relationships that have developed over time that determine who is in which subsystem and the associated boundaries between those subsystems.
