Recasting the theory of systemic family therapy : reading Bateson through Foucault and Deleuze

This thesis re-thinks the theory of systemic family therapy by investigating the role played by Gregory Bateson's ideas and by reading his ideas alongside the writings of poststructuralist philosophers Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. While Bateson's contribution to the early development of systemic family therapy is widely recognised, the subsequent emergence of narrative and social constructionist versions of systemic family therapy has been held to have supersededBateson. In this thesis it is argued that when Bateson is read alongside the writings of Foucault and Deleuze, his contribution is reinvigorated. The concepts that emerge out of these encounters are used to articulate a new conceptualization for systemic family therapy.The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part explores the historical development of systemic family therapy and defines the problem in terms of a double irony. The first irony relates to Bateson's frustration with prevalent theoretical models within the social sciences. This frustration was at the base of his investigations into cybernetics which, in turn, were central to the emergence of systemic family therapy. Bateson's theoretical work provided the clinic with a relational alternative to prevalent inrapsychic approaches. The second irony relates to a critical reflection on the contemporaryconfiguration of theory in systemic family therapy with particular reference to Bateson's insights. This critical reflection constitutes a continuous reminder of the difficulties inherent in a rigorous engagement with the complexity of a relational approach to the clinic.The second part provides a positive alternative to the presenting problem by engaging in a constructive reading of the philosophical projects of Foucault and Deleuze. These projects are interrogated in their relationship to the work of Bateson. Out of these encounters, a number of central concepts of Bateson's work are reconsidered, including Bateson's insights into cybernetics and the sacred. The cybernetic notions of reflexive and immanent knowledge that is self-forming becomes the means by which to understand one's position as an observer and a participant in society. Bateson's late explorations of grace and the sacred are used to provide evaluative guidelines for an approach that engages fully with a philosophy of difference