This week was pretty interesting, we learned about the prominent theories that help family therapists in their work. We talked about four different theories namely, systems theory, conflict theory, exchange theory, and symbolic interaction theory. At first I was a little bit leery about how useful these different theories are but as I read more about them they started to make perfect sense. The theory that made the most sense to me based on the family background that I came from is the systems theory. It states that there are subsystems in the family such as the spousal subsystem or the father-son subsystem or the brother-brother subsystem and that there are boundaries and rules that govern how each subsystem interacts within the whole of the family. The main premise of the theory is that you can't just single out one person in a family for counseling because each person has an effect on everyone in the family, stated succinctly as the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One analogy was given how all the ingredients of a cake are components but what you take out of the oven is more than just the individual parts. It also talked about how one little ingredient like baking soda can effect if the whole rises or not. I had never really thought of the family in this light before. I always thought when there were problems it was some individuals fault and that if they could get their act straightened up everything would be fine. Systems theory is saying that there are forces being exerted on that individual by the other members of the family that might be influencing them to act that way and that the therapist should analyze the whole family, not just one individual to try and bring about the desired change.
I also really liked the conflict theory which is that when there are two or more people or groups with different views and opinions they will experience conflict. I think this almost borders along common sense, but I think it is a good thing to always remember. With that in mind, you can ask questions to try and find out what the differing opinions and views are so they can be brought to the table and discussed.
We all had a good chuckle in class regarding symbolic interaction which says that everything we do is symbolic for something. For instance, not giving someone a kiss or hug when you see them could mean a multitude of things. One person might think giving a kiss means you like someone while the other person might think it means something totally different. I think there is a huge potential for misunderstanding when we base our relationships on symbolic interaction. Basically, you would need a relationship dictionary explaining what you are meaning whenever you do something nonverbal in an attempt to communicate something to the other person. Anyway, this was a long post. Just some really interesting things to think about.