Публикация для IX Всемирного конгресса по психотерапии в июне 2020 года в Москве, печатный вариант в регулярном сетевом научно-практическом издании «Антология Российской психотерапии и психологии».
FAMILY HISTORY AS A RESOURCE
An analysis of the family’s three-generation structure allows us to see the patterns of family scenarios, sources of difficulties and conflicts and opens to client access to hidden resources of his own kinship. We work through family history and the structure of the family using a circular genogram. The report presents the main points of the non-classical Szondiana – a new diagnostic approach contributing to our sagacity. Some applications in psychological counseling are given.
Keywords: genogram, szondiana, psychological counseling
Bermant-Polyakova Olga Viktorovna – Ph.D. in Psychology, psychotherapist, forensic psychologist, co-editor of the journal “Theory and Practice of Psychotherapy”, a member of the editorial board of the monthly scientific and practical journal “Psychotherapy” published by Professional Psychotherapeutic League. Russia, Rostov-on-Don.
Romanova Ilona Evgenievna - Ph.D. in Philosophy, an associate professor, psychotherapist of the United European Registration, the head of the Psychodrama modality of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League, an official teacher of international level, an accredited supervisor in psychodrama and polymodal therapy. Russia, Yekaterinburg.
A psychologist can sift gold placers of the client’s biographical material through different sieves, where Szondiana is the most capacious one. It has eight sectors presenting multiple intelligences. His reliable rim states by the well-known for Russians setting of a three-generation family. A robust material of the sieve is created by our psychological criteria for «family - the spouses who share secrets, dreams, and money. The four handles attached to sieve make dealing with material more convenient. These handles are The fate of the men of principles, The fate of the adventurous men, The fate of the highly skilled men, and The fate of the generous soul.
Clients carry lots of material to us. We hutch facts together in szondiana’s sieve to find gold nuggets of comprehension and enrich the client with golden sand of his own insights. A circular genogram technique providing this profound investigation described in detail in our monograph “People and Fates. Szondiana in Psychological Counseling”[1].
A circular genogram is a powerful tool. Gathering biographical data is accompanied by an inquiry about the occupations of adult members of a three-generation family. The psychological part of inquiry relies on the ideas of Leopold Szondi about eight unconscious drives [3] and Howard Gardner's ideas about multiple intelligences [2].
Applying the biographical method, we fill the genogram and discuss both the facts and the client’s attitudes. Meanwhile, his hopes and unconscious limitations in different areas (to be the owner of a house, to change residence, to be a leader, to have many children, etc.) reveal.
The non-classical Szondiana outlines its interests in three topics: multiple intelligences, occupations, and fates, i.e. client’s lifelong values. Two things were borrowed from the classical Leopold Szondi’s theory: letters which naming the needs (drives h, s, e, hy, k, p, d, m) and the principle of dividing family unconscious material into eight clusters.
Non-classical Szondiana is based on eight clusters of unconscious needs organized around innovative material about 98 key ideas. Its main methodological principle is the postmodern idea of the “search for shortages” in the client’s personal set of clusters. We focused on mental health, not on the psychopathology. That is why the monograph plentifully describes only four Fates, excluding discussion about The fate of the addicted men.
The result of our ten years of research and theoretical work in overlapping fields of projective psychodiagnostic and social psychology are summarized in the diagnostic scheme of psychological difficulties, where there are three large groups: The Intra-personal Difficulties, The Inter-personal Difficulties, and the Inter-group Disagreements.
Three possible types of The Intra-personal Difficulties of a client are (1) “has congenitally weak unconscious need (or kind of intelligence)”, (2) “his strong intelligences A and B, but has a job requires his weak intelligences B and D”, and (3) “does not live its own life values. Feels that meaning of being in A, and behave according to the model of people whose life values are B”. In the third difficulty, The Fates are implied.
Four possible types of The Inter-personal Difficulties are (1) “does not have, has not created, or has not found a family where his weak kind of intelligence would be compensated for,” (2) “builds relationships with other people using the mechanism of projective identification”, (3) “his family considers a strong kind of his intelligence (any of eight) to be a whim”, and (4) “his family considers his life values to be a whim”. The Marvelous Mrs. Mazel is an excellent example in this field.
Three possible types of The Inter-group Disagreements within the large three-generation kinship are (1) “there is no data concerning one of the ancestors, so the emptiness is experienced as frightening”, (2) “in one root of family a strong intellect is A when in another root a strong intellect is B”, and (3) “life values of mother’s kinship and life values of father’s kinship do not match.” Here the issues of life-shaping choices, biographical switches, personal tempo-rhyme of changes and the burden of ambivalence are manifesting.
The eight intelligences took into consideration in non-classical szondiana diagnostic are intrapersonal, verbal-linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, logical-mathematical, naturalistic, musical-rhythmic, and interpersonal.
In conclusion, it is impossible to know everything. Family history is an inexhaustible resource. As we become acquainted with the three-generation family and recognize the talents and the fates within the mother’s and the father’s kinship, new horizons are discovered for ourselves - their successors.
Literature Cited (the books are in Russian):
1. Bermant-Polyakova O.V., Romanova I.E. People and Fates. Szondiana in Psychological Counseling. Ekaterinburg, Publishing Solutions, 2017. 702 p. Table of content is available on https://rorschach-club.livejournal.com/281531.html
2. Gardner H. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Moscow, Williams, 2007.512 p.
3. Szondi L. Textbook of Experimental Diagnosis of the Drives. Moscow, Kogito-Center, 2005.555 p.
