ABSTRACT
In recent years there has been widespread contention that systemic therapists have under-theorized the therapist-family relationship—especially in its emotional aspects. The therapeutic relationship is central to the analytic process and is more marginal to the systemic process. This chapter considers the direct challenges to culturally embedded patterns of the autonomous self, which systemic therapists mount by enlisting other parts of the client’s autonomous self. There are patterns of the autonomous self that appear more resistant to change than these “habits”. Psychoanalytic ideas might be useful in elucidating the approaches that depend on an intense personal relationship. There are situations that require others to bear witness to something that has happened, or an ongoing state of affairs that has great significance for the person. The chapter focuses on relationships, emotions, and therapy. Concern with emotions and other issues of value takes “therapy” on a “strange loop” out of itself and into the domain of ethics and morals.
