Blog #2 Interactional View

   

         Relationships are not a simple addition problem but a complex algebra equation. The way one member of a family acts affects the whole system. This is the interactional view that started from Paul Watzlawick along with his colleagues. Watzlawick was a senior fellow at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. Watzlawick also was a clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. This idea that you cannot isolate what one family member does as they affect each other is interactional.  To understand this theory, I will explain a family and their current situation and how the interaction View could be applied.  

When one person is severely suffering from mental illness in a family, the whole family is. This could be genes, but the Interactional view theory could apply. For example, we have a single mother suffering from depression after losing her two parents, who she, along with her two children, lived with. Her children are 20 and 25, and they all live together. The mother is in a dark place and is not working every day. Her children want to pick up the slack because rent and living responsibilities are increasing. Yet, it seems complicated for them when their role model doesn't see a point and tells them daily. When we apply the Interactional View to her children, they know she doesn't mean it even when she gives the context they want to hear because of their relationship. There has also been a switch in family power; the head of the household is now using one-down communication. This means she is offering control and being submissive. A lack of will to live is a lack of caring; their mother shares this with them and tells them to take over. However, her children can not just move on as usual.

         Both suffer from depression and sometimes feel the same as their mother. Then, for her two children, juggling to keep their mother and home afloat and deciding who they want to be. They are stuck in the position of a double bind, taking on expectations they aren't sure they're ready for. In my opinion, everyone and no one is the enabler in this case. Depression is a clinical disease, and grief is complicated for everyone. However, their children cannot stop their lives to save their mother, and their mother can't expect them to do so. I think how they can reframe their current situation is more important than their role in their family system. This may be from family therapy to even long-term treatment for their mother. Either way, something must change for them to leave their dark place as a family system. This family has much love; maybe going out more, enjoying their time together, and seeing new things could help. 

Resources 

 Griffin, E., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks , G. (n.d.). The interactional view Paul Watzlawick - a first look.   https://www.afirstlook.com/docs/interactionalview.pdf