The History of Family Constellation Therapy

• Virginia Satyr (1916-1988)

o the foundation of family formation family sculptures

American family therapist. 1951 – first deals with the family as a whole unit

o examines 3 generations retrospectively

o goal: to restore the client’s self-esteem and

o to show how an event experienced as a youthful trauma can be judged by the client in such a way that it becomes a resource instead of a grip in the past.•

Jacob Levy Moreno (Bucharest, 1889 – New York, 1974)

o doctor, psychiatrist

o founder of psychodrama

o Sociologist, one of the first developers of sociometry

o saw psychodrama as the antithesis of psychotherapy: instead of words, he sought to release spontaneous, acting self-expression

o instead of the individual, he placed a group of individuals at the center of psychotherapy

o The psychodrama is based on role theory developed by Moreno

o distinguishes four role categories: somatic, psychic, social, transcendent roles, which are built on each other like layers of onions

o examines man not on his own, but together with his social atom (emotionally most important relationships), which are necessary for healthy development

o considers mental disorders as a consequence of problematic interactions with the environment.

• Lipót Szondi (Nitra, 1893 – Zurich, 1986)o neurologist, psychiatrist

o Creator of Fate Analysis and Probe Test

o In his analysis of destiny, he refers to the coercive power of ancestors as the family unconscious.

o 1937 – fate in the compulsion to choose from our ancestors and blood relatives – in love, friendship, occupation, illness, death.

o Awareness of coercive destiny is an essential condition for the choice of destiny, because “he who does not choose himself has no personal destiny.”

• Bert Hellinger (1925 -)o German priest and psychologist

o the creator of systemic psychotherapy

o “Our destiny is inextricably linked to the destiny of our wider family members.”

o systemic-phenomenological system therapy: whether the client has a connection to the fate of a member of his or her extended family who lived at some age. If it is revealed, he can get rid of it.

o We don’t just take our life scenarios from our parents, they go back much further.

o regards the family system as an energy system with its own operating rules; family spirit. Both Szondi and Hellinger contrast freedom and chosen destiny with the bondage of coercive destiny. Their goal is for man to recognize his potential in destiny, liberate himself, and complete his life. The essential difference between the two: Szondi approaches the cause of compulsion from the ancestors towards us, and Hellinger approaches them from them, that is, we take it upon ourselves with our unconscious love.