Systemic therapy: a reformulation of its basic principles in terms of language-games

Abstract

Though Steve de Shazer and other authors have used the Wittgensteinian concept of «language-game» to understand the way reality is perceived and conceptualized by the client, a reformulation of the basic principles of systemic therapy in terms of language-games is needed. In this paper, I will carry out this reformulation by pointing out some parallelisms between systemic therapy and Wittgenstein’s later philosophy about his notion of «illness» as well as the priority of dissolution over solution for both problem-systems and philosophical problems, the importance of providing a broader perspective of the corresponding problems, and above all, the difficulty of facing up to the resistances that will arise as the process of dissolution advances. Moreover, these parallelisms will also shed light on some important aspects of Wittgenstein’s late philosophy such as his conviction that philosophy leaves everything as it is.