ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a typical family constellation scenario and hypothesizes about the relationships between the ritualization of family constellation and participants’ emotions. One major research question is how family constellation workshops, offered by different providers, vary in their degree of ritualization and how these differences influence the experiences of the participants. Family constellation borrows from several more established psychotherapeutic methods, including “psychodrama” and “family sculptures,” where families perform their relationships as a dramatic scene within a therapeutic context. An orientation along the “orders of love” and an understanding of the constellations as “truth” may also contribute to a more ritualized atmosphere and reinforce participants’ emotional reactions. We assume that several variables contribute to the ritualization of the family constellation processes. These are: the exclusiveness of the event, sparse information about the process, a restriction to “existential” concerns, the use of speech acts, gestures, and metaphors, a rigid interpretation of constellation pictures and emotional contagion within the group during the process.
