Systems-centred practice and its theory are one of the most important developments in group psychology in the last forty years. In this book Yvonne Agazarian traces the evolution of her ideas and their application to create a meta-theory, the theory of living human systems.
Autobiography of a Theory follows Agazarian as she thinks her way through different stages, creating a theoretical background for SAVI (System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction), which she developed with Anita Simon, developing a theory of the Invisible Group for the book she wrote with Richard Peters and expanding on existing group dynamics theories. With members of the General Systems Committee of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, she joined the challenge of formulating a systems theory for group and arrived at her theory of living human systems from which she derived the methods and techniques of systems-centred therapy for groups and individuals. This fascinating account of her professional life not only documents major developments in group analysis, but also shows how a theory is formulated from intellectual and personal contexts, and how a theory-based practice is generated.
Inhoudsopgave
1. Curiosity: Early musings. 2. Trying to make it make sense: Discrimination and integration. 3. First theory: Group as a function of interdependence of parts. 4. Second theory: Group-as-a-whole. 5. Third theory: Bridge construct of role between individual and group. 6. Thinking systems: The gap between theory and practice. 7. A theory of living human systems: A meta-theory. Index.
Over de auteur
Susan P. Gantt, Ph D, is a psychologist and Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, USA, where she co-ordinates group psychotherapy training. She is Board Certified in Group Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology. In private practice she works as a licensed practitioner in systems-centred group, couples and individual therapy and as a trainer and conference director in systems-centred training in the US and Britain.