Socijalna psihijatrija, Vol. 54 No. 2, 2026.
Sažetak sa skupa
https://doi.org/10.24869/spsih.2026.135
The Symptom as an Invitation to Change: Systemic Family Psychotherapy in Clinical Practice
Ivana Sindik
; Klinički bolnički centar „Sestre Milosrdnice“, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska
*
Ivana Mošić Pražetina
; Klinički bolnički centar „Sestre Milosrdnice“, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska
Nikoleta Josipović
; Klinički bolnički centar „Sestre Milosrdnice“, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska
* Dopisni autor.
Sažetak
In confronting the psychiatric diagnosis and illness
of one of their members, families and those
close to them go through a difficult period marked
by changes that may become a source of additional
stress. Behind already entrenched dysfunctional
patterns of behavior and communication, there
often lie powerful beliefs and emotions that seek
resolution, as well as transgenerational and cultural
specificities. Systemic family psychotherapy
understands the symptom as the “mistakenly attempted
solutions” that the family has for a particular
problem, thereby maintaining homeostasis,
even if that homeostasis is pathological. The
emphasis is placed on interpersonal patterns and
an interactional understanding of the problem,
and on the emergence of the symptom in that
context, with the aim of depathologizing the individual
and finding new narratives for the family as
a whole. The symptom of the family member that
brings the entire family into therapy is “the tip of the iceberg,” and behind it we uncover the specific
structural and communicational patterns that
maintain it. Enmeshed relationships, rigid roles,
double messages, and closed boundaries toward
the environment are among the characteristics of
families in which a member has a mental illness,
and they are most pronounced in schizophrenia
spectrum disorders. The fundamental approach
is a psychoeducational procedure regarding the
nature of the illness and the mode of communication
(reduction of the EE index), combined
with strategic-structural techniques. In a postmodernist
spirit, the emphasis is placed further
on context and culture, and this approach has
proved highly effective in the psychotherapeutic
treatment of families with schizophrenia, but also
with other more severe mental disorders such as
depression, eating disorder, etc. Contemporary
family psychotherapy integrates these various approaches
and techniques and constitutes a highly
dynamic and open field of psychotherapy for practice
and further research, placing the therapist in
the position of a curious, creative researcher and
collaborator with the family.
Ključne riječi
systemic family psychotherapy; symptom; homeostasis
Hrčak ID:
352260
URI
Datum izdavanja:
15.6.2026.
Posjeta: 0 *