Person-centered systems theory

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The person-centered system theory of Jürgen Kriz is a multi-level concept for the understanding of psychotherapy and clinical processes different with special consideration of the interaction levels (u. A. Psychological, interpersonal, cultural and physical processes).

Kriz tries to overcome the limitations that arise within many psychotherapy schools by emphasizing individual process levels. Therefore, this approach combines aspects and findings from different psychotherapeutic orientations with overarching concepts - above all from humanistic psychotherapy , synergetics , gestalt theory , biosemiotics and evolutionary psychology . Special emphasis is placed on the distinction between objective descriptions and the experience of the subject.

Central questions

Kriz names four central questions that are addressed with the person-centered systems theory: "(1) How we humans create a sufficiently comprehensible, meaningfully ordered world from the incomprehensible complexity of a physical-chemical and informational stimulus world, (2) how this order typically appears constantly adapting to new conditions and challenges (" development tasks"), (3) why this adaptation can also fail partially and in particular prove to be overstable and inadequate - which is typical for many symptoms (and more generally: problems), and ultimately, (4 ) how professional help can be designed using the resources and potential of self-organization. "

Kriz assigns the variety of processes relevant to these questions to four process levels. He emphasizes, however, that this is a purely analytical distinction, because concrete influences from all four process levels on life and action are effective at every moment. In addition, further processes can be distinguished depending on the question.

Four process levels

The following four levels are to be regarded as the minimum of what must be taken into account in order not to systematically hide significant effects.

Mental processes

This is the central level at which meaning and meaning is generated by the people involved. Man is connected to the world through perceptions and actions; He evaluates these processes through thinking and feeling processes and can observe himself.

Interpersonal processes

This is about the microsocial structures of couples, families or teams. Terms such as "interaction patterns" or "communicative rules" indicate that the meanings of utterances and their contribution to one another are negotiated in mutual interaction. Everyone believes they know about the expectations of others and can be influenced or even guided by them. It is a web of mutual insinuations that stabilizes "reality" even when much of it is incorrect. Since these tacit assumptions are rarely discussed, the chances of correction are rather slim. Everyday experience and research show how people often experience themselves as victims of others or of circumstances, even though they themselves (unconsciously) contribute to maintaining this pattern.

Cultural processes

People have invented the meanings of words and sentences as well as inner images about living together or the expectations of fellow human beings, not individually, detached from social contexts. Rather, different cultures and subcultures convey meanings that significantly influence the processes of (a) and (b). Information about the significance of what is happening in the " here and now " is also incorporated from the media, conversations with colleagues at work or from other sources outside the family . Much of this is not known to those involved.

Physical processes

In accordance with Ciompi's logic of affect, Kriz also emphasizes that at every moment both cognitive-psychological and affective processes take place simultaneously in the human organism. Because of the slower change in biochemical parameters, the affective processes form the framework for the rapidly changeable cognitive processes with their bioelectrical basis. Concepts like "felt sense" refer to the great relevance of tacit knowledge in our organism, which comes from early experiences as well as from evolutionary structures of the brain. This was long underestimated, but is now generally discussed under the term " social brain ".

Psychotherapy , counseling and coaching usually consider the processes on the first two levels and often their interaction. In contrast, the influences of cultural and physical processes are largely neglected. The actors are largely unaware of them, but nevertheless - or precisely because of that - have a very strong effect.

Stability, instability and the interaction of the four process levels

Symptoms and problems with which people come to psychotherapy, counseling and coaching are understood by Kriz as overstable process patterns. These were mostly appropriate and functional in earlier development phases, but did not adapt to new conditions. Because human development - both on the level of the individual and in social systems - consists in repeatedly giving up effective procedural patterns because new development tasks arise. For example, different patterns of interaction are necessary at the family level, depending on whether a child has just been born, goes to kindergarten or school, reaches puberty, begins vocational training, etc. The same applies to the organization of the child's psychological processes. Organizations, too, have to repeatedly question and adapt their structures and processes in view of changing market conditions. For psychotherapy, counseling and coaching, the question of stability - or overstability - as well as change and new adaptation is central.

Sense attracters

The interdisciplinary system theory of synergetics, which in turn derives from the theory of nonlinear dynamic systems, serves as a model for understanding these phenomena. It is about self-organization processes in which a large number of components form orders or patterns, which then have an effect on what happens in the components in further development. Such dynamic stabilities or orders are called attractors . In the person-centered systems theory, it is not about phenomena for which energetic processes are important. Rather, it is about psychosocial phenomena in which sense and meaning are essential. Therefore, Kriz uses a structural-scientific version of synergetics as a model basis and specifies the attractors as meaning attracters. The task of psychotherapy, counseling and coaching would therefore be to support hyperstable sense attracters - which show up as symptoms and problems in psychological and interactive processes - in their adaptation to the changed developmental tasks. This takes place in an order-order transition, in which (painful) orders are destabilized so that new orders can arise that better meet the new conditions.

Bottom-up and top-down

Stability, instability and order-order transitions can be described in detail in the context of synergetics. Self-organized orders or attractors therefore arise from feedback processes between a micro and a macro level. With regard to perception, this has already been made clear by Gestalt psychology using the phenomenon of "melody". Tones are formed from " bottom-up " to a melody. At the same time, this affects the perception of the tones from "top-down". For example, depending on the context of the melody, one and the same physical tone is perceived as a "calming tonic" or a "tense dominant". Likewise, uttered words generate certain meaningful connections in the person opposite (bottom-up), whereby the meaning of other words is understood in the context of these connections (top-down).

Complex cooperation

The framework for self-organized orders (i.e. the attractors) are given by the environment of a system. In person-centered systems theory, the other levels represent the environmental conditions on each level, so that there is a complex interaction of all levels. The multiple entanglements become clear when you realize that you can only understand your innermost and most intimate feelings ( first-person perspective ) by applying the cultural tools (third-person perspective) to yourself. It's not just about language or terms, but also about the metaphors, principles of understanding, etc. that are conveyed by culture.

Complementarity of objective and subjective perspectives

Kriz emphasizes the relevance of a distinction between objective and subjective perspective and at the same time emphasizes their complementarity. Scientific objects have neither the ability to reflect and interpret their situation, nor to act accordingly. Accordingly, scientific synergetics is primarily about the relationship between the self-organizing system and the environment. This looks fundamentally different in the human realm. The question therefore always arises as to whether it is about environmental conditions as described by observers (or scientists, therapists) or those conditions as they are experienced by the affected clients themselves. This question of perspective was discussed by biosemiotics a hundred years ago and, in relation to the world of animals, led to the distinction between surroundings and the environment. For the human area, based on Husserl , the term lifeworld is preferred instead of environment. This is mainly characterized by an inexhaustible supply of intersubjectively agreed symbols, which makes the human being an " animal symbolicum ".

Kriz clarifies the differences between “objective” and subjective perspectives on the basis of pairs of terms such as finding - condition, need - need, etc. He emphasizes that the objective findings of the diagnosis often have little connection with the sensitivities of the subject. This also applies to the objectively determined (or officially prescribed) needs of a person in contrast to their needs. Kriz emphasizes that both perspectives are important for understanding and cannot be played off against each other. He criticizes the fact that many concepts such as "stress" or "resources" are often described primarily on the basis of "objective" factors, while other aspects are relevant to the subject's experience and actions.

literature

  • Jürgen Kriz, Fritz B. Simon: The dispute over the eye of the needle. Body, psyche, social, culture. Where do systemic consultants look? (Ed. By Matthias Ohler) .: Carl-Auer, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-8497-0313-4 .
  • Jürgen Kriz: Person-centered system theory in coaching. In: Alica Ryba, Gerhard Roth (Hrsg.): Coaching and advice in practice. A neuroscientific integration model. : Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2019, pp. 424–448, ISBN 978-3-608-96215-4 .
  • Jürgen Kriz: Subject and lifeworld. Person-centered systems theory for psychotherapy, counseling and coaching. : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-525-49163-8 .
  • Jürgen Kriz: Person-centered systems theory. In: Werner Eberwein, Manfred Thielen, (Ed.): Humanistic Psychotherapy. Theories, methods, effectiveness. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2014, pp. 283–296, ISBN 978-3-8379-2351-3 .
  • Jürgen Kriz: Person-centered systems theory. Basic questions and key aspects. In: Arist von Schlippe, Willy Christian Kriz (eds.): Person centering and systems theory. Perspectives for psychotherapeutic action. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, pp. 13 - 67, ISBN 978-3-525-49078-5 .
  • Jürgen Kriz: Mental Health: Its Conception in Systems Theory. An Outline of the Person-Centered System Approach. In: MJ Pelaez (Ed.): Comparative Sociology of Family, Health & Education. Volume XX, Málaga, Spain 1991, pp. 6061-6083.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Including Carl Rogers : Development of Personality. 22nd edition. Klett, Stuttgart 2020, ISBN 978-3-608-96417-2 .
  2. ↑ See Hermann Haken : Synergetics. An Introduction. Springer, Berlin 1983, ISBN 978-3-642-88338-5 .
  3. ↑ Jürgen Kriz: Hermann Hakens synergetics as a basic model (also) for the understanding of people in the world. In: Jürgen Kriz, Wolfgang Tschacher (Ed.): Synergetics as a folder. The structuring effect of Hermann Haken's interdisciplinary ideas . Pabst, Lengerich 2017, pp. 85–94, ISBN 978-3-95853-330-1 .
  4. ↑ Among others Wolfgang Metzger : Psychology. The evolution of their basic assumptions since the introduction of the experiment. 6th edition. Krammer, Vienna 2001, ISBN 978-3-90181-107-4 .
  5. ↑ Jakob Johann von Uexküll : Environment and inner world of animals. J. Springer, Berlin 1909.
  6. ^ Robin Dunbar : The social brain hypothesis. In: Evolutionary Anthropology. Volume 23, 1998, pp. 178-190.
  7. ↑ Jürgen Kriz: Person-centered system theory. In: Mark Galliker, Uwe Wolfradt (Hrsg.): Compendium of psychological theories. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 2015, pp. 342-345, ISBN 978-3-518-29754-4 .
  8. ↑ Luc Ciompi : Affektlogik. About the structure of the psyche and its development. A contribution to schizophrenia research. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 978-3-211-25214-7 .
  9. ↑ In organizations, this is discussed under the term change management .
  10. ^ Jürgen Kriz, Wolfgang Tschacher: Systems theory as structural science: mediator between practice and research. In: Family Dynamics. Volume 38 No. 2, 2013, pp. 12–21.
  11. ↑ Günter Schiepek : The basics of systemic therapy. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-525-45855-6 .
  12. ↑ Edmund Husserl: The crisis of the European sciences and the transcendental phenomenology. Meiner, Hamburg 1936/2007, ISBN 978-3-7873-2259-6 .
  13. ↑ Ernst Cassirer : Philosophy of symbolic forms . 3 volumes. Meiner, Hamburg 1923–1929/2010.