Systems-Centred Theory and Practice

The Contribution of Yvonne Agazarian

Yvonne M. Agazarian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367106614
• eBook ISBN: 9780429919756
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Systems-centered therapy (SCT) brings an innovative approach to clinical practice. Developed by the author, SCT introduces a theory and set of methods that put systems ideas into practice. The collection of articles in this book illustrates the array of clinical applications in which SCT is now used. Each chapter introduces particular applications of SCT theory or methods with specific examples from practice that help the theory and methods come alive for the reader across a variety of clinical contexts. This book will be especially useful for therapists and clinical practitioners interested in sampling SCT, for those who learn best with clinical examples, and for anyone with a serious interest in learning the systems-centered approach.

CHAPTER ONE
Five papers from the Friends Hospital training series: Fall 1992 to Fall 1995

Yvonne Agazarian, Ed.D., CGP, DFAGPA, FAPA

These are the original papers from the “Friends Series”, a training that was held once a month on Saturdays at the Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The series began in the early 1990’s and continued through the decade with two generations of trainers taking up leadership roles. These papers represent some of the earliest descriptions of SCT methods and theory. The theoretical thinking and techniques that emerged during that period continue to be the backbone of the Theory of Living Human Systems and its Systems-Centered practice today.

These five papers were the first introduction to Systems-centered Therapy and Training at Friends Hospital, between 1992 and 1995. The five papers are: I: Functional Subgrouping, II: How to Develop a Working Group, III: Defense Modification, IV: Subgrouping in the Phases of Group Development, V: Building Blocks of a Theory of Living Human Systems and its Systems-Centered Practice.

* * *

Series I: functional subgrouping

Asking “why are you saying that?”
or “tell me more about that!”
is like giving another member’s boat
a push out to sea.

Saying “I’m in your subgroup”
is like an encouraging wave from the shore.

Working as a member of your subgroup is more than
pushing another member’s boat out to sea,
or waving encouragingly from the shore.

Subgrouping is getting into the boat
and rowing too!

The subgroup, not the individual member, is the basic unit of the systems-centered group. Not the obvious stereotype subgroups, like age or sex or race, but functional subgroups. All subgroups naturally come together around similarities and separate around differences. Functional subgroups are different from stereotypic subgroups in that functional subgroups come together around dynamic differences, thus mirroring the way that systems develop. All systems differentiate and individuate through a process of integrating ever more complex discriminations: discriminating differences in the apparently similar and similarities in the apparently different.

Once subgroups are “seen” as systems, the therapist can deliberately influence subgroup dynamics in the service of containing and integrating group splits which occur naturally around differences. In systems-centered therapy, the subgroup is the fulcrum of change and there are some specific techniques for mastering developmental conflicts in the group through functional subgrouping. Explicitly encouraging the group to do subgroup work interrupts the spontaneous fight/flight response to differences and replaces it with the discipline of “functional subgrouping” (Agazarian, 1991).

Functional subgrouping

Systems-centered therapy is the method by which the therapist encourages the group to learn the skills of how to communicate within and between subgroups. When similarities and differences are processed within and between subgroups, integration takes place at the group-as-a-whole level.

“The automatic response to difference is defensive and conflicted. Groups tend to split the ‘similar enough and good’ from the ‘too different and bad’: take in the ‘good,’ reject the ‘bad’ ”. (Agazarian, 1992). Functional subgrouping exploits the natural developmental process of system splitting and containing. Systems-centered therapy relies on the technique of functional subgrouping to contain splits, metabolize projective identifications and to overcome the compulsion to repeat that is generic to every individual. The technique of functional subgrouping is also the method by which phases of group development are influenced: resistances to change weakened, and the forces that drive the system towards its goals of survival, development and environmental mastery are increased.

Traditionally, in the group-as-a-whole, the first subgroups to appear represent the obvious and most simple “containment” of differences in a group, like sex, age, color, race, and status. Stereotype subgrouping is one of the first ways the group-as-a-whole structures itself to contain its differences and maintain group stability. Later in dynamic development, the group-as-a-whole uses the roles of “benevolent leader”, “malevolent leader”, “the scapegoat” and the “identified patient” as containers for its un-integrated splits around differences. This dynamic is so dramatic in group development, that the less obvious dynamic of “functional subgrouping” can go unnoticed in the developmental process. Stereotype subgrouping is the simplest level of functional subgrouping (Agazarian, 1990b). Subgroups naturally come together around similarities and separate around differences, thus mirroring the developmental process of discriminating and integrating. Thus the dynamic that underlies the function of subgrouping, mirrors the dynamics of system development and can be deliberately harnessed in the service of containing and integrating group splits. Explicitly encouraging the group to do subgroup work interrupts the spontaneous fight response to differences and replaces it with the discipline of “functional subgrouping”.

The most efficient method for facilitating the subgroup work of discrimination and integration is to encourage the exploration of experience within each individual subgroup before there is any cross-subgroup communication. Thus, by the very process of development, the internal process shifts from the cohesion around similarities to seeing differences in the cohesively similar. This process increases differentiation within each subgroup and increases the permeability potential of the boundaries between the subgroups. When boundaries become appropriately permeable to a transfer of information, similarities between the differing subgroups are perceived and new subgroups can form. This is the process of system integration and the ongoing task of crossing from irreality to reality (and from the unconscious to the preconscious to the conscious).

Some functional subgroups appear as obviously balanced dichotomies in the group that the leader can easily encourage the group to explore: cognition and affect; compliance and defiance; closeness and distance. Others are less obvious and have to be “believed” before they are seen: like seeing that fighting members belong to the same subgroup and are one of two group subgroups balancing the groups’ fight and flight response. When the systems-centered therapist manages conflict through functional subgrouping, the group is encouraged to first identify and then to “take sides” in the conflict, and to do their individual insight work in the supported context of the subgroup. This bypasses ambivalence: the common defense against the experience of being pulled two ways by the forces of both sides of the conflict. The therapist encourages a conscious splitting into subgroups and, by so doing, discourages defensive splitting within individuals. The conflict is contained within the group-as-a-whole rather than within each individual. Through membership in a subgroup, individuals are supported in their work of exploring one single side of their version of the conflict instead of denying, projecting or acting out in the struggle to contain both at once.

By promoting functional subgrouping, the “container” roles (like the scapegoat or the identified patient) that are created through projective identification are addressed, not by focusing on the individual who takes up the role, but in terms of the subgroup that the individual represents, and the role that the subgroup is playing for the group-as-a-whole. In this way, reintegrating projected differences becomes the explicit work of the group-as-a-whole rather than the “problem” of the individual or the subgroup.

The difference between functional subgroups and stereotype subgroups

The difference between functional subgroups and stereotype subgroups
Functional subgroups	Stereotype subgroups
all subgroups join around similarities and split around differences	all subgroups join around similarities and split around differences
functional subgroups contain and explore differences instead of stereotyping and scapegoating them	stereotype subgroups come together around obvious similarities like black and white, male and female, them and us
functional subgroups join around similarities and split differences between them
	everybody knows how to make stereotype subgroups
functional subgroups “contain” all conflict within the group-as-a-whole
	everybody knows what to do and what to say to make top dogs, under dogs and little dogs
as each subgroup discovers new differences by exploring the similarities within them so each subgroup discovers new similarities by exploring the differences between them
	everybody knows how to keep the ups up and the downs down
	everybody knows how to keep the ins in and the outs out
when the differences within each subgroup join with the similarities between each subgroup the group-as-a-whole transforms into a new group able to work differently from the old group	everybody knows how to make scapegoats of each other
	stereotype subgrouping discriminates differences and won't integrate them
re-integrating around similarities after deliberately splitting around differences moves the group-as-a-whole along the path to its goal	stereotype subgrouping manages the hatred and fear that is aroused by differences by creating a social pecking order
functional subgrouping upsets the social order by making a place for everyone and letting everyone find their place to make the social system work	by having a place for everyone and keeping everyone in their place stereotype subgrouping keeps the social system stable

Through membership in a subgroup, individual members are supported in their work of exploring one single side of their version of the conflict instead of denying, projecting or acting out in the struggle to contain both at once. When the systems-centered therapist manages conflict through functional subgrouping, members are encouraged to first identify and then to “take sides” in the conflict, and to do their individual insight work in the supportive context of the subgroup. This bypasses ambivalence, the common defense against the experience of being pulled two ways. By subgrouping functionally around the two sides of a conflict, defensive splitting is changed into a conscious split in the service of work. Every individual always belongs in more than one subgroup at once, but no individual can work in more than one subgroup at once. By deliberately choosing to subgroup, the conflict is deliberately split between subgroups. In this way, the conflict is contained within the group-as-a-whole rather than within each individual.

Summary

Systems thinking differs from more traditional thinking about groups in that it is systems-centered, not person-centered. The behavior of members in a group is therefore understood in terms of system dynamics rather than individual psychodynamics. The group-as-a-whole, its subgroups and its members are all defined as systems which mirror each other in dynamics, structure, and function. The most efficient method for facilitating the subgroup work of discrimination and integration is to encourage the exploration of experience within each individual subgroup before there is any cross-subgroup communication. Thus, by the very process of development, the internal process shifts from the cohesion around similarities to seeing differences in the cohesively similar. This process increases differentiation within each subgroup and increases the similarities between the subgroups. When boundaries become appropriately permeable to a transfer of information, similarities between the differing subgroups are perceived at the group-as-a-whole level, integration takes place and new subgroups can form. This is the process of system integration and transformation and the ongoing task of crossing from irreality to reality (and from the unconscious to the preconscious to the conscious). The very process of subgroups mirrors the dynamics of system development.

Systems-centered therapy is a method which capitalizes upon this principle in the group by deliberately promoting functional subgrouping to do the work of discriminating, communicating and integrating perceptions of differences in the apparently similar and similarities in the apparently different.

Series II: how to develop a working group

inside the boundaries in space and time, group systems appear
outside the boundaries in space and time, group systems disappear
outside the group boundaries in space and time, social roles appear
inside the group boundaries in space and time, member roles appear.

boundaries define the difference
between outside and inside
between the past and the present and the future
between the wishes and fears and the living reality
between realities that change
and realities that don’t

boundaries are the difference that makes the difference
in managing the different ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
• BIOGRAPHY
• INTRODUCTION The achievements and influence of Yvonne Agazarian
• CHAPTER ONE Five papers from the Friends Hospital training series: Fall 1992 to Fall 1995
• CHAPTER TWO The radical innovation of subgroups
• CHAPTER THREE Two perspectives on a trauma in a training group: the systems-centered approach and the theory of incohesion
• CHAPTER FOUR Role, goal and context: key issues for group therapists and group leaders
• CHAPTER FIVE SCT and psychodynamic group psychotherapy
• INDEX