MODULE II

Theoretical Foundations of the Family Constellation.

1. Systems Theory.
General systems theory (TGS) or systems theory or systemic approach emerged
with the works of the German biologist Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, published
between 1950 and 1968. TGS does not seek to solve problems or propose
practical solutions, but rather to produce theories and conceptual formulations
that can create conditions of application in empirical reality. The basic
assumptions of general systems theory are:

1. There is a clear trend towards integration in the various natural and social
sciences.
2. This integration seems to be oriented towards a systems theory.
3. Such systems theory can be a broader way of studying non-physical fields of
scientific knowledge, especially the social sciences.

4. This system theory, by developing unifying principles that vertically traverse

the particular universes of the various sciences involved, brings us closer to
the objective of the unity of science.
5. This can lead us to an integration in scientific administration.
General systems theory asserts that the properties of systems cannot be
meaningfully described in terms of their separate elements. Understanding
systems only occurs when they are studied globally, involving all the
interdependencies of their parts. Water is different from the hydrogen and
oxygen that constitute it. The forest is different from each of its trees.

The TGS is based on three basic premises:

1. Systems exist within systems. Molecules exist within cells, cells within tissues,
tissues within organs, organs within an organism, and so on.
 2. The systems are open. This premise is a consequence of the previous one.
Each system examined, except the smallest or largest, receives and
downloads something to the other systems, usually adjacent ones. Open
systems are characterized by being a process of infinite exchange with their
environment, made up of other systems.
3. The functions of a system depend on its structure for biological and
mechanical systems, this statement is intuitive. Muscle tissues, for example,
contract because they are made up of a cellular structure that allows
contractions to function.

2. Network Theory.
We call network theory the knowledge of how communication mechanisms
between people work, the propagation of ideas and messages and, ultimately,
changes.

The concept of “network” had its origin in Anglo-Saxon anthropology, being used
to refer to groups of individuals linked to each other by relationships that had a
high degree of proximity and intimacy, although they were not necessarily
kinship.

One of the first anthropologists to define it was the American J. Barnes (1954)
and, since then, it has been revealed as an important concept in areas as
different as mental health or the study of societies, sociolinguistics or
psychotherapy.

It is evident that the network is an artifice created by the observer, by drawing

arbitrary borders on the reality he analyzes. Each individual and each group is
directly related to many others, sometimes stable and other times provisionally.
But this artifice is operational and has proven useful to read certain situations
and act on them in a more effective way. As pointed out by C. Sluzki (1996), the
network model allows the individual and the family to be misaligned, and also the
therapist in their professional practice.

With this model it is evident that internal and external resources are closely linked
and can only be separated artificially. The family or the individual does not rely only

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on its own internal resources, but the system is linked as the node of a network with
other broader systems, which influence and are in turn influenced by it.

Each subject has ties that are not limited to the nuclear or extended family. These
links form what we call a personal social network and form an intermediate
structure between the family system and other broader social structures. The social
network was theorized by numerous authors in the field of social psychology: Kurt
Lewin with his social field theory or Jacob L. Moreno, the father of psychodrama
and inventor of the sociogram with which maps of relationships between groups
and communities are created. Some authors have carefully studied the informal
networks that are created in groups (J. Barnes) and that include both family
components and significant extrafamilial relationships. In 1957, Elisabeth Boot, in
her study of urban families in England, differentiated between network composition,
network structure, and contents of interactions, opening new avenues for research
on this concept.

Erich Lindemann, in 1979, established a relationship between the position of the

individual in the network and the short and medium-term effects of crisis situations.

From the countercultural field, Ross Speck and Carolyn Attneave (1973) worked on
the concept of network and retribalization applied to the crises of people who come
to request clinical help, and focusing their work on the need of such people to
develop and reestablish the social ties that were diluted by the unstoppable
deindividualizing process of modern society.

The personal social network is nothing more than the sum of all the significant
relationships that the individual perceives and that contribute in a special way to his
or her own recognition and the maintenance of his or her self-image (Sluzki, 1996).
These significant links are usually composed of:

a. The family
b. The friendships
c. Work or study colleagues
d. Community relations (membership in political parties, organizations, clubs, etc.).

In this network, the subject maintains intimate relationships with a small group of
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people, with whom the degree of commitment is always high; a social friendship -
with a lower degree of commitment - with an intermediate circle of the network; and
an occasional connection with the group of acquaintances, with hardly any
commitment. These three circles make up the map of the social network of each of
us, as shown in the figure. In it we see in blue the inner circle, the innermost one;
the striped circle, which represents intermediate relationships and finally, in white,
the outer circle of acquaintances and casual relationships.

Bronfenbrenner has also proposed a similar map to talk about the evolutionary
processes of the child, indicating that there is an inner microsystemic circle, which
corresponds to the family; an intermediate or mesosystemic circle, which is
equivalent to the personal social network; and an external or macrosystemic circle,
which corresponds to society, its dominant values, political and economic power,
etc.

The border of the informal social network is undoubtedly more blurred than that of
the family network, to the extent that for the links established in the latter we have
names (father, uncle, nephew...), while we do not There are some to talk about
more fluctuating social relations.

What are the most notable characteristics of a network? Briefly, the network is
structurally evaluated by its:
1. Size: small networks are usually ineffective when the tension and overload
situation is excessive or of long duration.
2. Density: it is the connection between the members. If it is very high, conformity
to the group is favored due to social pressure; If the individual deviates, the
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 density of the network favors the processes of exclusion and marginalization.
3. Composition: proportion of individuals in each area (professional, family, etc.).
4. Dispersion or geographical distance, which affects the communication
processes between its components.
5. Demographic and/or social homogeneity or heterogeneity: degree to which
differences in social class, sex, cultural level, etc. occur.
6. Attributes of specific links: duration of the link, intensity of the link, etc.

The personal social network has functions, defined by the type of exchange
between its members. Some of these functions are:

• The social company

• Provide emotional support and advice
• Serve as an interaction model
• Function as a regulator of social control, neutralizing behavioral deviations
among its members or dissipating violence or containing frustration.

• Development of social rituals that favor the retribalization of individuals.

• Provide material and service help
• Allow access to new contacts and social relationships.
3. Definition and Classes of Systems.
A System is any organism with a number of components in mutual interaction. A
component is a system entity that in combination with other units functions to
combine, separate or compare inputs to produce outputs. A system is a
composite object whose components are related to at least some other
component; It can be material or conceptual. The composition of a system is the
set of its component parts. The environment of a system is the set of things that
act on the components of the system, or on which the components of the system
act. The internal structure or endostructure of a system is the set of relationships
between the components of the system. The external structure or exostructure of
a system is the set of relationships between the components of the system and
the elements of its environment. The total structure of a system is the union of its
exostructure and its endostructure. The most important relationships are links,
those that affect related components; spatiotemporal relationships are not links.

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The mechanism of a system is the set of internal processes that cause it to
change some properties, while preserving others.

The classification of a system, as well as the analysis of its aspects, is a

subjective process; It depends on the individual who does it, the objective that is
pursued and the particular circumstances in which it is developed. However,
according to a general classification we could present it as follows:
According to its relationship with the environment:

• Open systems.
• Closed systems.

According to its nature:

• Concrete systems.
• abstract systems

According to its origin:

• Natural systems.
• Artificial systems.

According to their relationships:

• Simple systems.
• Complex systems.

According to its change over time:

• Static systems.
• Dynamic systems.

In systemic and family therapy we will focus on systems according to their

relationship with the environment:

• Open systems. These are systems that import and process elements (energy,
matter, information) from their environments and this is a characteristic of all
living systems. That a system is open means that it establishes permanent
exchanges with its environment, exchanges that determine its balance,
reproductive capacity or continuity, that is, its viability (negative entropy,

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 teleology, morphogenesis, equifinality).

• Closed systems. A system is closed when no outside elements enter and

none leave the system. These reach their maximum state of equilibrium by
becoming equal to the medium (entropy, equilibrium). Sometimes the term
closed system is also applied to systems that behave in a fixed, rhythmic or
unchanged manner, as would be the case of closed circuits.

4. Properties of Open Systems.

For all systems in general there are certain properties that general systems
theory allows to be applied in various ways for the study and analysis of
systems, but there are other properties that are exclusive to open systems and
that may not be available in other types of systems. are presented, all these
properties are described below:

4.1. Isomorphism: Isomorphic means "with a similar shape" and refers to the
construction of models of systems similar to the original model. For
example, an artificial heart is isomorphic with respect to the real organ: this
model can serve as a study element to draw conclusions applicable to the
original heart.
4.2. Permeability: measures the interaction that it receives from the medium, it
is said that the greater or less permeability of the system, the more or less
open it will be. On the contrary, systems with almost zero permeability are
called closed systems.
4.3. Centralization and decentralization: it is said to be centralized when it has a
core that commands all the others, and these depend on the first for their
activation, since by themselves they are not capable of generating any
process. On the contrary, decentralized systems are those where The
command and decision core is made up of several subsystems. In this
case, the system is not so dependent but may have subsystems that act as
reserves that only come into operation when the system that should act in
said case fails.
4.4. Adaptability: it is the property that a system has of learning and modifying a
process, a state or a characteristic according to the modifications that the

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 context undergoes. This is achieved through an adaptation mechanism that
allows us to respond to internal and external changes over time. For a
system to be adaptable, it must have a fluid exchange with the environment
in which it is developed.
4.5. Maintainability: it is the property that a system has of keeping itself in
operation. To do this, it uses a maintenance mechanism that ensures that
the different subsystems are balanced and that the total system remains in
equilibrium with its environment.
4.6. Stability: It is said to be stable when kept in balance through the continuous
flow of materials, energy and information. Stability occurs as long as the
systems can maintain their functioning and work effectively.
4.7. Harmony: is the property of systems that measures the level of
compatibility with their environment or context. A harmonic system is one
that undergoes modifications in its structure, process or characteristics to
the extent that the environment demands it and is static when the
environment is also static.
4.8. Optimization and sub-optimization: optimization modify the system to
achieve the objectives. Sub-optimization is the reverse process, it occurs
when the system does not achieve its objectives due to the restrictions of
the environment and they are exclusive, in this case the scope of the
objectives must be restricted or the less important ones must be eliminated
if these are mutually exclusive. others more important.
4.9. Success: The success of systems is the extent to which they achieve their
objectives. The lack of success requires a review of the system since they
do not meet the objectives proposed for it, so that said system is modified
so that it can achieve the determined objectives.
4.10. Feedback: Feedback occurs when system outputs, or the influence of
system outputs on the context, re-enter the system as resources or
information. Feedback allows the control of a system and allows it to take
corrective measures based on the information provided.
4.11. Feed-forward or front feeding: It is a form of system control, where said
control is carried out at the input of the system, in such a way that it does

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 not have corrupt or bad inputs, in this way as there are no bad inputs in the
system, failures will not be a consequence of the inputs but of the
processes themselves that make up the system.
4.12. Homeostasis and entropy: Homeostasis is the property of a system that
defines its level of response and adaptation to the context. It is the level of
permanent adaptation of the system or its tendency towards dynamic
survival. Highly homeostatic systems undergo structural transformations to
the same extent that the context undergoes transformations, both act as
determinants of the level of evolution.
The entropy of a system is the wear and tear that the system presents due
to the passage of time or due to its operation. Highly entropic systems tend
to disappear due to the wear and tear generated by their systemic process.
They must have rigorous control systems and mechanisms for review,
reworking and permanent change, to avoid their disappearance over time.
In a closed system the entropy must always be positive. However, in open
biological or social systems, entropy can be reduced or better yet
transformed into negative entropy, that is, a more complete organization
process and the ability to transform resources. This is possible because in
open systems the resources used to reduce the entropy process are taken
from the external environment. Likewise, living systems remain in a stable
state and can avoid increasing entropy and even develop toward states of
order and increasing organization.
4.13. Integration and independence: An integrated system is called one in which
its level of internal coherence means that a change produced in any of its
subsystems produces changes in the other subsystems and even in the
system itself. A system is independent when a change that occurs in it does
not affect other systems.
4.14. Limits: Each system has something internal and something external,
likewise what is external to the system is part of the environment and not
the system itself. The limits are closely linked to the issue of the
environment, we can define it as the line that forms a circle around selected
variables such that there is less exchange of energy through that line with

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 the interior of the circle that it delimits.
4.15. Holism: The concept of totality implies non-additivity, in other words: "the
"whole" constitutes more than the simple sum of its parts." The interest of
TGS resides in the transactional processes that occur between the
components of a system and between its properties. In other words, it is
impossible to understand a system by only studying its component parts
and "adding up" the impression one receives from them. The character of
the system transcends the sum of its components and their attributes, and
belongs to a higher level of abstraction.
4.16. Objective: every open system seeks an objective in general, the general
theory of systems recognizes the capacity of open systems to be able to
achieve said objective as a result of holistic operations and for the system
to remain alive after that.
4.17. Equifinality: This principle of equifinality means that identical results can
have different origins, because what is decisive is the nature of the
organization. Likewise, different results can be produced by the same
"causes."
4.18. Protection and growth: In the systems there would be two forces that would
arise from the application of Cannon's ideas:
a) the homeostatic force, which would make the system continue as it was
before.
b) the morphogenetic force, contrary to the previous one, which would be
the cause of the changes in the system.
4.19. Equipotentiality: This principle implicitly implies the idea that different states
can be obtained starting from the same initial situation, it implies the
possibility of making future predictions on the possible inputs and outputs of
the system.
4.20. Synergy: relationships between all the elements of the system, describing
how and why they all relate and what the function of each component of the
system is.
4.21. Vulnerability: state in which the system may present failures, risks and
possible causes of failures are evaluated.

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5. Positive and Negative Feedback.
Feedback is a system control mechanism in which the results obtained from a
task or activity are reintroduced into the system with the purpose of influencing
or acting on future decisions or actions, either to maintain balance in the system,
or to drive the system towards a new one. In this sense, we can talk about two
types of feedback: negative and positive.

Negative feedback has the function of controlling and regulating the processes
of a system. As such, it is responsible for maintaining balance within the system,
counteracting or modifying the consequences of certain actions. Hence it is
associated with homeostatic or self-regulation processes. For example: they ask
us to perform ten tasks in five hours, but we are able to complete them in three.
Next, we are required to use the five hours for the completion of the ten tasks at
the next opportunity. There, a negative feedback process has occurred so that
the system returns to its original equilibrium, based on the quality of task
execution.

Positive feedback , for its part, is responsible for amplifying or enhancing

certain changes or deviations introduced in a system, so that it can evolve or
grow towards a new state of balance, different from the previous one.
For example: they ask us to perform the ten tasks again in five hours, and we
are able to have solved them in just three hours. So, they congratulate us and
ask us to continue reducing the amount of time we spend on tasks. There the
feedback has been positive, the system is seeking a new balance based on
efficiency.

The purpose of the positive and negative feedback processes is always focused
on optimizing the behavior of the systems, according to certain patterns and
criteria. As such, it is a mechanism that applies to virtually any process that
involves the control and adjustment of a system. In this sense, it is used in areas
such as communication, psychology, business management, electronics,
education and medicine.

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6. Systemic Laws.
The systemic vision is basically based on three laws through which we can begin
a process of awareness, namely:
1st
Law of Belonging.
All family members have the right to belong, including those who disappeared or
were excluded, forgotten, or belittled due to traumatic or difficult to support issues.
As examples we can take into account those children who were aborted, people
who were excluded from the family for various reasons and difficulty in accepting
what was, such as in the case of a suicide or murder, in the attempt to try to erase
those memories and keep them away. But these people continue to belong to the
family system and generate a strong influence at the levels of the family
unconscious. The systemic consciousness or the family soul cannot tolerate the
exclusion of any of the members who are part of the clan, leaving its invisible traces
and influences and looking for a way to compensate and heal that void in the family
clan. If a member is excluded in one generation, they will be included by another
subsequent generation, and the latter will unconsciously carry the weight of that
information, so that it is healed, aired and transcended.
2nd
Law of Order (Law of Prevalence. or Antiquity).
It is very important in a family to take into account the order of arrival, those who
arrived earlier are older than those who arrived later and this has its logic. For
example, a grandfather arrived earlier and is bigger than dad, and dad is bigger
than his son and so on. People who were born earlier have priority over those who
were born later. Family conscience takes this order into account since it is logical
and by taking it into account we can maintain balance.
We must keep in mind that we all have a family of origin and a current family, the
latter, although it originated later than the one of origin, has priority since it is the
project on which the family itself is based and is the fundamental life project.
Although parents will always be the great ones and we will always visualize them
behind us as references that they have always been and will be, but given this
example, my current family is the preference for attention and walking in life.
3rd
Law of Compensation (Law of Balance between Giving and Receiving)

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 In every family there is constant giving and receiving and life is based on this
giving and receiving. There must be a balance that compensates for this
movement. The giving and taking between parents and children is different from
the giving and taking in a relationship.
Parents give and children receive and this happens constantly in this order and
although parents also receive from their children, they cannot compensate for
what they have received, which is life, nor is it a function, they must give and
offer the best of themselves to others. their own children and continue the path
giving what they received or improving it if possible. When a child wants to solve
a problem that his parents have, he is frustratingly trying to give them something
he does not have, since no child has the power to change the destiny of his
parents, wasting his strength instead of focusing it on investing it in his own
project of development. life. Children will never be able to return the life they
received from their parents, in any case they will be able to give it to their
children and invest it in their path, being grateful for this strength and directing
their gaze towards their destiny.
In the case of a couple, it is a relationship between equals and the giving and
receiving has to be compensated, both give and take, but this giving and taking
has to be compensated and balanced, that is, if one gives a lot and the other If
nothing else, the balance is broken, causing discomfort in the couple.

7. homeostasis
Homeostasis or morphostasis is the tendency of the system to maintain its unity,
identity and balance in the face of the environment. This concept is used to
describe how the change in one of the family members is related to the change
in another member, that is, that a change in one part of the system is followed by
another compensatory change in other parts of it that restores the equilibrium.

8. Family Morphogenesis.
The tendency of the system to change and grow is called family morphogenesis;
It includes the perception of change, the development of new skills and/or
functions to manage what changes, and the negotiation of a new redistribution of
roles among the people who make up the family.

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This implies that if in a family no child takes the step of forming a new family and
having their own children, the family system ends with their generation. On the
other hand, a company that always does the same thing goes bankrupt because it
does not adapt to changes in its environment. A company that grows without
stopping, buying competitors, merging with other companies, ends up collapsing
because it does not consolidate its situation. We are immersed in a dance of
opposing forces: stability (homeostasis) and growth (morphogenesis), a dynamic
dance and not at all static, and every day we seek our balance again in this dance
of life.

Source of information:
V Family Constellations-BourquinPeter
V http://www.xiass.cat/wp-content/uploads/Intervenci%C3%B3n-en- Redes.pdf
V https://medicinadefamiliatortuga.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/enfoque-
sistc3a9mico1.pdfhttps://medicinadefamiliatortuga.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/
enfoque-sistc3a9mico1.pdf
V https://prezi.com/thm6jg3kdodn/sistemas-definicion-elementos-y-tipos-de-
sistemas/https://prezi.com/thm6jg3kdodn/sistemas-definicion-elementos-y-tipos-
de-sistemas/
V http://bloodied-sword.blogspot.com/2007/12/propiedades-de-los-sistemas-
abiertos.htmlhttp://bloodied-sword.blogspot.com/2007/12/propiedades-de-los-
sistemas-abiertos.html
V https://www.significados.com/retroalimentacion-positive-y-negativa/
V https://carlosnavasurbano.com/las-tres-leyes-fundamentales-la-sanacion-
sistemica/
V https://www.mentesabiertas.org/articulos/publicaciones/articulos-de-
psychologia/terapia-familiar-sistemica-por-jose-alvarezhttps://
www.mentesabiertas.org/articulos/publicaciones/articulos-de-psicologia/terapia-
familiar-sistemica-por-jose-alvarez

Prepared by: Claudia Ruiz

Havona International School

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