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Letter from Germany: What's New?

Letter from Germany: What's New? Foreign Correspondent Jürgen Hargens ‘What’s new?’ — what a question for systemic workers — I had a similar experience when grappling with concepts like emotion or intuition. Attending the above mentioned as Bateson put it decades ago: information (newness) is conference on intuition, I was stuck by two ideas: simply ‘a difference which makes a difference’. Thinking about my letter to you, I let my mind wander back to what • the more people tried to define intuition, the more I I have experienced in the last twelve months and I am not ‘felt’ that intuition got lost, slipped from their grasp quite sure whether there has been ‘news’ or just ‘more of the • the more people discussed the issue of not being able to same in different words’. describe ‘intuitive behaviours’, the more upset the audi- What struck me over the last year has been two things: ence got — they seemed to like getting answers, and 1. somehow out of the blue the issue ‘systemic work with ‘how to do it’ prescriptions groups’ has hit the field — many professional journals For me, even more questions arose — is intuition an ‘idea’, have produced an issue on exactly this topic, and a ‘concept’, an ‘illusion’, a ‘reality’, a ‘possibility’, a ‘tool of description’ … ? And what might be its utility, advantage, 2. somehow previously hidden (or disguised?) issues have or profit? crept into the daylight, for example emotion, or intu- I was reminded of Bateson, who once mentioned that ition. A nation-wide conference in here Germany was epistemology is somehow very personal. As some colleagues titled ‘intuition — the sixth sense of systemic therapy’. have put it: you cannot kiss a system (nor a group nor a The issue of systemic work with groups involved interesting concept) though you may fall in love with it and never give questions. To name just a few: it up — what a love … • what is the difference between systemic and other All this has triggered in me some apparently unrelated approaches with groups? reflections on my professional life — about getting older, which means taking much more care of myself: how can I • what is the difference between systemic work with indi- work in such a way that I care enough for myself and that I viduals and with groups? am not drowning in my work? I have met many colleagues • what is the difference between systemic work with who seem to struggle with these very same issues, looking groups and solution-focused work with groups? for some ways out of them — up to now they have found Most people readily agree that working with groups has no ‘perfect’ solution. When we ask ourselves the miracle certain advantages and often these advantages are stated in question, the answers mostly create a scenario which has a broad and general manner. The theoretical base of a sys- been labeled as ‘real miracle’ — meaning, ironically, ‘not a temic approach to group work seems to be somehow real(istic) solution’. Thus, I am thinking that one of the obscure, sort of taken for granted. upcoming issues in systemic work might be the theme of ‘older people’ — very natural, I would think — simply Professionals working systemically with groups mostly because the proponents of systemic work are getting older concentrate on describing their techniques — such as cir- themselves and the self-recursive cycle inevitably leads back cular questioning, hypothesising, reflecting — most of on our own way of living. which address just one member of the group. Seen this way, It’s not the end of the year (my ritual ending!), but it is unclear what is special about working with and within the middle of one seems as good a time as any to reflect a group. And much of what these systemic groups workers upon ourselves. say they are doing is either using a reflecting team, com- posed of members of the group, or using techniques from Yours peacefully the solution-focused approach. Is this ‘being systemic’ or Jürgen Hargens just being one type of systemic therapist? Many more ques- Norderweg 14, tions might be asked — I simply do not know the answers, D-24980 Meyn, Germany and the more I have read the less I seem to understand. Email: juergenhargens@t-online.de ANZJFT Volume 22 Number 3 2001 pp. 166 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Wiley

Letter from Germany: What's New?

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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
"Copyright © 2001 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company"
ISSN
0814-723X
eISSN
1467-8438
DOI
10.1002/j.1467-8438.2001.tb00472.x
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Abstract

Foreign Correspondent Jürgen Hargens ‘What’s new?’ — what a question for systemic workers — I had a similar experience when grappling with concepts like emotion or intuition. Attending the above mentioned as Bateson put it decades ago: information (newness) is conference on intuition, I was stuck by two ideas: simply ‘a difference which makes a difference’. Thinking about my letter to you, I let my mind wander back to what • the more people tried to define intuition, the more I I have experienced in the last twelve months and I am not ‘felt’ that intuition got lost, slipped from their grasp quite sure whether there has been ‘news’ or just ‘more of the • the more people discussed the issue of not being able to same in different words’. describe ‘intuitive behaviours’, the more upset the audi- What struck me over the last year has been two things: ence got — they seemed to like getting answers, and 1. somehow out of the blue the issue ‘systemic work with ‘how to do it’ prescriptions groups’ has hit the field — many professional journals For me, even more questions arose — is intuition an ‘idea’, have produced an issue on exactly this topic, and a ‘concept’, an ‘illusion’, a ‘reality’, a ‘possibility’, a ‘tool of description’ … ? And what might be its utility, advantage, 2. somehow previously hidden (or disguised?) issues have or profit? crept into the daylight, for example emotion, or intu- I was reminded of Bateson, who once mentioned that ition. A nation-wide conference in here Germany was epistemology is somehow very personal. As some colleagues titled ‘intuition — the sixth sense of systemic therapy’. have put it: you cannot kiss a system (nor a group nor a The issue of systemic work with groups involved interesting concept) though you may fall in love with it and never give questions. To name just a few: it up — what a love … • what is the difference between systemic and other All this has triggered in me some apparently unrelated approaches with groups? reflections on my professional life — about getting older, which means taking much more care of myself: how can I • what is the difference between systemic work with indi- work in such a way that I care enough for myself and that I viduals and with groups? am not drowning in my work? I have met many colleagues • what is the difference between systemic work with who seem to struggle with these very same issues, looking groups and solution-focused work with groups? for some ways out of them — up to now they have found Most people readily agree that working with groups has no ‘perfect’ solution. When we ask ourselves the miracle certain advantages and often these advantages are stated in question, the answers mostly create a scenario which has a broad and general manner. The theoretical base of a sys- been labeled as ‘real miracle’ — meaning, ironically, ‘not a temic approach to group work seems to be somehow real(istic) solution’. Thus, I am thinking that one of the obscure, sort of taken for granted. upcoming issues in systemic work might be the theme of ‘older people’ — very natural, I would think — simply Professionals working systemically with groups mostly because the proponents of systemic work are getting older concentrate on describing their techniques — such as cir- themselves and the self-recursive cycle inevitably leads back cular questioning, hypothesising, reflecting — most of on our own way of living. which address just one member of the group. Seen this way, It’s not the end of the year (my ritual ending!), but it is unclear what is special about working with and within the middle of one seems as good a time as any to reflect a group. And much of what these systemic groups workers upon ourselves. say they are doing is either using a reflecting team, com- posed of members of the group, or using techniques from Yours peacefully the solution-focused approach. Is this ‘being systemic’ or Jürgen Hargens just being one type of systemic therapist? Many more ques- Norderweg 14, tions might be asked — I simply do not know the answers, D-24980 Meyn, Germany and the more I have read the less I seem to understand. Email: juergenhargens@t-online.de ANZJFT Volume 22 Number 3 2001 pp. 166

Journal

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy – Wiley

Published: Sep 1, 2001

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