1997 Volume 11 Issue 1 Pages 43-56
System theories which have been applied so far to family therapies are the first and second generation system theories. This study will explore the possibility of the application to family therapy of autopoiesis theory, regarded as the third generation system theory.
One of the most important aspects of autopoietic theory is that it makes it possible to define life in terms of communication that continues without interruption, while producing some new meaning in the process.
All sorts of problems which occur within the family are regarded as results of stagnation in communication. Disfunctional behaviors of family members have two simultaneous significations from the point of view of autopoietic therapy. One is the above-mentioned content and the other is the revival of living communication in dysfunctional families. What we must do in family thrapy is to find the small rules observed repeatedly in the family for linking one communication with the next and to revive living communication by correcting these rules.
Finally, we should attempt to conceptualize an autopoietic responese on the basis of Bateson's communication theory.
