When someone searches for Family constellation on the web (in English), The
number 1 page that comes up is Wikipedia.
So many of our clients get their information about Constellations here.
If Wikipedia's description is negatively written, does this hurt our modality
and our profession?
First read Wikipedia's 3 paragraph description of Psychodrama, a close cousin
to Family Constellation work:
Psychodrama is an action method, often used as a psychotherapy, in which
clients use spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic
self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives.[1]
Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. (1889–1974) psychodrama includes elements of
theater, often conducted on a stage, or a space that serves as a stage area,
where props can be used. A psychodrama therapy group, under the direction of a
licensed psychodramatist, reenacts real-life, past situations (or inner mental
processes), acting them out in present time. Participants then have the
opportunity to evaluate their behavior, reflect on how the past incident is
getting played out in the present and more deeply understand particular
situations in their lives.[2] Psychodrama offers a creative way for an
individual or group to explore and solve personal problems. It may be used in a
variety of clinical and community-based settings, and is most often utilized in
a group scenario, in which each person in the group can become therapeutic
agents for one another's scenes. Psychodrama is not, however, a form of group
therapy, and is instead an individual psychotherapy that is executed from
within a group. There are "side-benifits" that the other group members may
experience, as they make relevant connections and insights to their own lives
from the psychodrama of another. A psychodrama is best conducted and produced
by a person trained in the method, called a psychodrama director.[3]
In a session of psychodrama, one client of the group becomes the protagonist,
and focuses on a particular, personal, emotionally problematic situation to
enact on stage. A variety of scenes may be enacted, depicting, for example,
memories of specific happenings in the client's past, unfinished situations,
inner dramas, fantasies, dreams, preparations for future risk-taking
situations, or unrehearsed expressions of mental states in the here and now.[2]
These scenes either approximate real-life situations or are externalizations of
inner mental processes. Other members of the group may become auxiliaries, and
support the protagonist by playing other significant roles in the scene[2] or
may step in, as a "double" who plays the role of the protagonist.
A core tenet of psychodrama is Moreno's theory of "spontaneity-creativity".[4]
Moreno believed that the best way for an individual to respond creatively to a
situation is through spontaneity, that is, through a readiness to improvise and
respond in the moment.[5] By encouraging an individual to address a problem in
a creative way, reacting spontaneously and based on impulse, they may begin to
discover new solutions to problems in their lives and learn new roles they can
inhabit within it.[4] Moreno's focus on spontaneous action within the
psychodrama was developed in his Theatre of Spontaneity, which he directed in
Vienna in the early 1920s.[6] Disenchanted with the stagnancy he observed in
conventional, scripted theatre, he found himself interested in the spontaneity
required in improvisational work. He founded an improvisational troupe in the
1920s. This work in the theatre impacted the development of his psychodramatic
theory.
Now read the short Wikipedia 3 paragraph description of Family Constellation
work:
Family Constellations is an alternative therapeutic method which draws on
elements of family systems therapy, existential phenomenology and Zulu
attitudes to family.[1] In a single session, a Family Constellation supposedly
attempts to reveal a previously unrecognized systemic dynamic that spans
multiple generations in a given family and to resolve the deleterious effects
of that dynamic by encouraging the subject to accept the factual reality of the
past.
Family Constellations diverges significantly from conventional forms of
cognitive, behaviour and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The method has been
described by physicists as quantum quackery, and its founder Bert Hellinger
incorporates the pseudoscientific idea of morphic resonance into his
explanation of it. Positive outcomes from the therapy have been attributed to
conventional explanations such as suggestion and empathy.[2]
Practitioners claim that present-day problems and difficulties may be
influenced by traumas suffered in previous generations of the family, even if
those affected now are unaware of the original event in the past. A theoretical
foundation for this concept is called The Ancestor Syndrome in psychology.[3]
Hellinger referred to the relation between present and past problems that are
not caused by direct personal experience as Systemic entanglements, said to
occur when unresolved trauma has afflicted a family through an event such as
murder, suicide, death of a mother in childbirth, early death of a parent or
sibling, war, natural disaster, emigration, or abuse.[4] The psychiatrist Iván
Böszörményi-Nagy referred to this phenomenon as Invisible Loyalties.
Now, it may be just me, but I believe that Wikipedia's Family Constellation
description, as written, is negatively biased.
Particularly these two points:
"In a single session, a Family Constellation supposedly attempts to reveal"
"The method has been described by physicists as quantum quackery, and its
founder Bert Hellinger incorporates the pseudoscientific idea of morphic
resonance into his explanation of it. Positive outcomes from the therapy have
been attributed to conventional explanations such as suggestion and empathy"
I believe that this description, which is probably the NUMBER ONE ENGLISH
DESCRIPTOR IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, being negatively slanted, hurts us and hurts
our profession. Note, there is nothing like this in the Psychodrama description.
What are your thoughts, Am I right? does this matter? If it does, should we do
something?
From Boulder Colorado, Jack Blackwell
Jack Blackwell (720) 458-5363
Connecting Spirit & Psychology ~ Creating profound insights and Healing
Family Constellation Workshops & Trainings, Holotropic Breathwork
Visit us at Family-Constellation.com to learn more
