"Each family has a structure and a fuction, too. The structure of a family system is made up of the individual members of the family, including parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles and perhaps others who live with the family for an extended period of time."

"The analogy is that of a mobile. As you imagine a mobile suspended from the ceiling of your living room, notice how all of the seperate pieces of the mobile hang magically suspended in delicate harmony and balance with each other. Although each part of the mobile might be a separate, fragile piece of crystal or polished metal, the mobile as a whole seems to be at one with itself - one beautiful, whole work of art. If you bumped agaist one element of the mobile, it may move with a brush of energy and unpredictable motion - but it does not move by itself. Because although it appears to be a separate, solitary piece of crystal or metal, it is connected nonetheless to the rest of the mobile by wire or string. And hus, whatever energy it picks up from you will be transmitted to the rest of the mobile, even though the effect may be subtle and nearly imperceptible.

In other words, whatever happens to one part of the mobile affects the other parts of the mobile. If you stop bumping into the mobile, something else very predictable will happen, too. Each of the individual, autonomous pieces of that mobile will return to precisely the same spot that it was in before you bumped into it. The mobile is a "whole" work of art that "wants" to be what it is, the way it "should be", the way it was "meant to be". So it returns to its original form, hanging silently where it began, a whole made up of individual parts, each in its own place, carrying out its functions of giving us joy and a sense of beauty. It is truly a brilliant metaphor that Satir provides us.
The mobile tells us a lot about principles of systems. It tells us that:

1. Systems have a definite structure to them. Each piece of the mobile has its place. It would not be the "same" mobile if we were to rearrange the pieces.

2. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The mobile is more than just pieces of strings or wire and pieces of metal or crystal. It is a work of art with its own identity, defined by how all of the parts are arranged.

3. Changes in one piece in the system affect all of the other pieces in the system (but not necessarily in the same way).

4. Systems always try to return to their original state. This is the princciple of dynamic homeostasis or balance. It would not be the "same" mobile unless after I bumped into it, it returned to the same place that is was before I bumped into it."

| anna | 12:35 |

comments

Já en ég skil ekki á kvaða hátt fugl í þessu mobile sem er meðvirkur hegðar sér öðru vísi en aðrir fuglar. Þetta er ágætur metaphor fyrir fjölskyldudýnamik en ekki fyrir meðvirkni.

Nr. 1 | posted by: organistinn | 5.10.2003 | 17:23:59 | [+] |

Þetta er ekki dæmi um meðvirkni, þetta er dæmi um hversu erfitt það er fyrir einstakling að breytast ef aðrir í fjölskyldunni breytast ekki.

Nr. 2 | posted by: anna | 5.10.2003 | 18:23:16 | [+] |

Hér geturðu séð hvað einkennir meðvirkan einstakling.

Nr. 3 | posted by: anna | 5.10.2003 | 21:17:10 | [+] |