Exchanging Voices

Lynn Hoffman

• Editors’ Foreword , Foreword , Introduction , The case against power and control , Joining theory to practice , The shift to postmodernism , Definitions for simple folk , A reflexive stance , “Kitchen talk” , Trying to write a postmodern text , Conclusion , Postscript

'Wherever you find the latest thinking in the family therapy field you will find Lynn Hoffman probing, clarifying, and asking the questions which most of us do not realize we want to ask. She has a unique ability to dwell in the idea of the moment, but also to see the historical developments of ideas which have given shape to the field of family therapy as we know it today.'This volume describes Hoffman's "discovery" of second order cybernetics, and her influential encounter with the feminist critique of systemic therapies. She goes on to de-mystify the works of Maturana, and to describe her personal relationship with Harry Goolishian and the emergence of constructivism. Finally, her journey takes the reader to the limits of constructivism and the birth of a new field known as social constructionist. However, in the process Hoffman has shared enough of her own experience of learning that the reader will feel well equipped to carry on with their own learning when they put the book down.'- David Campbell and Ros Draper'Therapy cannot make a compromise with systems of social power. Why did people like Hoffman, Anderson, Gollishian, and many others become so sensitive to the problems in the last five to six years, to the point of suggesting extreme positions like that of "not knowing", "not having an hypothesis", "being a silent listener", "doing imperceptible therapy"? Basically a non-interceptive stance. What explanations are there? It is very hard any way to achieve a non-interventionist stance. Sometimes one could feel like giving up altogether any form of action or any form of knowing. Are we beginning, Lynn first of all, to feel that a new wave of refined and not easily detectable oppressive political structure will overcome all forms of therapy without us even knowing about it? If so, this book is an antidote to that danger.'- Gianfranco Cecchin