Every story has a location, a context, an environment, that geographical and psychological real estate which contains the experiences of the story.
Family therapy is built upon the foundation of systems theory, a theory that postulates that the behavioral symptoms of an individual (i.e., the "identified patient") can not be understood outside of the context of its system (which, in family therapy is the family). Therefore, the family context becomes the corner stone of family therapy because the family creates the system, or environment, that contains each family member. And each family member thus responds to what's happening within that family system. The other foundational cornerstone of family systems theory is that the entire theory was formulated by psychiatrists seeking to understand how schizophrenia develops within a family context. . . .lol. . . .hence the term schizophrenogenic. But I digress. . . .
Systems theory is not just about the family as a system, but any system such as work, school, church, family, social groups, etc. These environments are structured by some kind of unifying system of values, beliefs, rules, regulations, or even laws, but these codes shape and inform the way that people behave and make choices within that system. (I did not say cause, I said shape and inform.)
I love personal therapy, but I did not enjoy the part of my training that mandated that I diagnose mental illness or family dysfuntion after a 40 minute conversation so that the clinic could be paid for said servies. My only saving grace in grad school was a tiny paragraph of the introduction to the DSM, which very clearly stated that a diagnosis of mental illness (or family dysfunction) was not appropriate if there were circumstances in the client's environment that better explained the behavioral symptoms. My work as a social worker always made more sense, because the environmental factors were not just considered, but became a source of restorative intervention.
Why is this important for me today? Because today I am reminded that my panic attacks did not just happen "out of the blue." They were contained within a specific environment, with a specific code of expected behavior, and in response to a specific series of events. They (the panic attacks) have evolved into a habitual way my body communicates when it is stressed by an apparent endless list of circumstances (both identifiable and not). But the choices that I made in how to respond to all of this were absolutely informed and shaped by the extremely restrictive environment I was in at the time.
I am thinking right now about the Sandusky scandal. . . .or the endless scandels that have ever taken place because people do not speak up in response to something that "shouldn't" be happening. It's very easy for outsiders to observe the events after the scandal has emerged and wonder why these otherwise caring, intelligent people didn't speak up in the face of what they witnesses or experienced.
But it's not just about self esteem, self confidence, personal power, or personal agency. . . .and it's also not about how intelligent a person is, or how caring they may otherwise be. It's also about the environment that contains the self and the person. . . .so I need to remember this fact the next time I beat myself up for the choices that I made. . . .and also when I start to question why someone else did not speak up, because people can only speak up when they feel safe and free to do so. . . .