ABSTRACT
From the 1950s onwards, a number of theorists developed ideas that came to be known as the field of cybernetics. Keertey points out that the early pioneers of cybernetics approaches were aware that a system was not simply composed of components that engaged in behaviours. The fundamental aspect of a system was that the parts were in communication with each other. In effect, the societal level of analysis, along with the family life-cycle model, could be seen as imposing a set of norms that people were expected to follow instead of focusing. As second-order cybernetics might suggest, on the unique patterns of meanings that evolve in families and the futility of attempting to make any kinds of simple generalizations. A further important emphasis of second-order cybernetics was that the process of therapy, the intrusion of the therapist, inevitably alters the family system.
