Biography of Mara Selvini Palazzoli (1916-1999)

Mara Selvini Palazzoli was an Italian psychiatrist, born in Milan on August 15, 1916, whose death dated June 21, 1999 (Patzi, 2017).

Content

• Early years and family life
• Mara Selvini theories
• What is systemic therapy?
  • Family Therapy of Selvini
  • Brief systemic therapy
  • Systemic theory of communication
  • Bibliographic references

Early years and family life

He was born in a difficult context due to World War II, in a family full of conflicting situations, precisely marked by the time. His father, Daniel Palazzoli, dedicated himself to commerce, to the food industry, with one of the main supermarkets of Milan. His mother was exhausted by the work of having three children, and when Selvini arrived (not expected) he had to leave her in the hospital under the care of Rosa, a nurse, who would become her main attachment figure along with sister Marie.

Once grown, Mara was taken to the Palazzoli family, where she is ignored both by her father and her mother, So he maintains contact with Sister Marie, who pushes her to study and move on despite the difficulties (Patzi, 2017). During his childhood, adolescence and youth, Mara was recognized as a fighter woman, who also did not feel the victim of her family situation, but rather, the future was projected by helping people, which is why he starts his studies in medicine.

Later, Mara Selvini, to See the situation of families and people who need help, decides to change general medicine and opt for psychiatry and psychotherapy, initially with psychoanalytic approach. It was at that time that he heard from a group of colleagues who ventured into the Family therapy, And he decides to approach the School of Milan, then convinced in this way of helping families, he decides to create the Center for Family Study, In 1967, with the cooperation of Luigi Boscolo, Giofranco Cecchin and Giuliana Prata, a team with which through trials and errors they began to define their way of working.

Mara Selvini theories

In 1967 he founded, as we have said, together with Gianfranco Cecchin, Luigi Boscolo and Giuliana Prata, the systemic and constructivist approach to family therapy, which was known as the Milan's family systems approach And, more generally, the Systemic Family Therapy School (Wikipedia, 2022). Mara Selvini and the Milan team worked with serious psychiatric disorders in families with anorexia and schizophrenic members.

Milan's approach implied careful attention to everything, starting with language; For example, they did not refer to schizophrenia as a diagnosis but to "families in schizophrenic transaction", which created a powerful coherence between how family problems imagine, the theory of their origins and how to make change.

What is systemic therapy?

Systemic family therapy is a therapeutic approach that, with a global and integral approach, studies family systems and their subsystems (couple, individual, children) and other significant social groups for determine the origin of conflicts and seek changes in dynamics From these relationships capable of achieving a solution (UNIR, 2020).

This therapy is based on the general theory of systems enunciated by the biologist and philosopher Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy and that means understanding the family as an entity with limits and related and interdependent parts, in which the change that affects one of those parts has effects on others (UNIR, 2020).

Family Therapy of Selvini

His theory focused on the idea that eating disorders have their origin in family dynamics and interaction between their members (Patzi, 2017). According to Selvini, the families of people suffering from anorexia nervosa are usually rigid and controlling, and the disease is a form of protest and resistance Faced with these dysfunctional dynamics. In addition, the Italian therapist believed that anorexia nervosa is not an individual disease, but a symptom of a systemic problem in the family.

To treat anorexia nervosa, Palazzoli developed a therapeutic approach called brief systemic therapy, which is based on the idea that change in a family member can cause changes throughout the system. The therapy focuses on communication and interaction between family members, and helping them modify their dynamics to be healthier.

Brief systemic therapy

Mara Selvini Palazzoli and her colleagues developed brief systemic therapy as a form of treatment that focuses on changing the patterns of interaction and communication in the system to improve the behavior of the individual members of the system.

Brief systemic therapy is a form of treatment that focuses on the dynamics of the social or family system instead of focusing on the individual itself. The therapist works to Understand and change the patterns of interaction and communication in the system, what can have a positive effect on the behavior of individual members.

Brief systemic therapy (TSB) can be defined as a set of intervention procedures and techniques that intend to help consultants (individuals, couples, families or groups) mobilize your resources to achieve your goals in the shortest possible time. It is a constructivist approach, which focuses on the interpersonal context of problems and their solutions, and promoting active collaboration with users. (Herrero, 2016).

Systemic theory of communication

One of the main exponents of the systemic theory of communication was Mara Selvini Palazzoli, who applied this theory to the study of family therapy. According to Palazzoli, communication problems within a family can be seen as a system, in which Each member plays a role and has a specific function in dynamics.

In his theory, Palazzoli identifies Four key elements of a communication system: the structure, the process, homeostasis and feedback. The structure It refers to the organization of the system, that is, how the members are connected and what their roles and functions are. The process refers to how communication is carried out in the system, and how decisions are made and made. Homeostasis is the ability of the system to maintain a balance, while feedback refers to how the system adapts and changes as it receives information from its environment.

The systemic theory of communication is a useful tool to understand how communication systems work in any context, either in a family, an organization or a society. When analyzing these systems holistically, it is possible to identify patterns, problems and solutions more effectively.

What is constructivism and how it is used in therapy?

Bibliographic references

• Wikipedia. (March 1, 2022). Mara Selvini Palazzoli. https: // in.Wikipedia.org/wiki/mara_selvini_palazzoli
• Bind. (December 4, 2020). Systemic family therapy: what consists, characteristics and objectives. https: // www.bind.NET/HEALTH/MAGAZINE/FAMILY-SYSTEMICS/
• Vega Herrero, M., Garcia, f., & Ceberio, M. (2016). Brief Systemic Therapy Manual.