Text and context: Narrative, postmodernism and cybernetics

Abstract

Currently, the systemic view in family therapy is being substituted by a postmodern narrative approach, while cybernetics tends to be considered an outdated perspective and its contribution to therapy overlooked. This paper proposes an epigenetic view for the evolution of theories, according to which a narrative therapy without systems is incomplete. The paper lists the implicit and explicit prescriptions to which a postmodern narrative therapist is subjected, and reviews some criticisms of the systemic perspective made by postmodern authors. Some internal inconsistencies of postmodern narrative therapies are considered, and some ways forward suggested.