The Origin of Systems and Links to Counseling and Psychotherapy through an Auto-Ethnography Perspective
Giselle Marie Cara*
Department of Psychology, Nottingham University, UK
Submission: January 22, 2018; Published: February 23, 2018
*Corresponding author: Giselle Marie Cara, Department of Psychology, Nottingham University, UK; Email: cara231@LIVE.COM
How to cite this article: Giselle Marie Cara. The Origin of Systems and Links to Counseling and Psychotherapy through an Auto-Ethnography Perspective. Psychol Behav Sci Int J. 2018; 8(4): 555744. DOI: 10.19080/PBSIJ.2018.08.555744
Abstract
We live in a highly individualistic world where people within and without systems solely cater for their own needs and do not hold any other people's needs in regard. They are unaware of how far reaching the consequences of their self-centered desires are. They affect their immediate surroundings, but also society and the planet at large. I propose to do this without judgment for what is right or wrong, but with the curiosity to find out possible ways to live in a more peaceful civilization, and how we can educate people who, in a direct or indirect way, are also responsible for the violence, sadness and even hunger of individuals in different part of the globe. This dissertation attempts to outline these systems and how individuals operate within them. It proposes to discuss the consequences of selfish motivations on other people and other systems as well as suggests ways in which auto-ethnography could aid the establishment of a more equitable system of beliefs and values that would benefit one and all.
Introduction
Rationale Behind this Writing
In the current economic climate reigning in the world, barriers between the rich and the poor, those who have and those who desire, is even more marked than in previous years. These have always existed, and yet they are proving to be even more tangible as institutions that hold power tighten their grip whereas those who are destitute bemoan the injustice. This current state of affairs and economy has encouraged me to think about the idea of systems and how they could operate in the world. Society is chock-full of classifications and subdivisions as Durkheim 1893 and Weber 1915 have pointed out at the turn of the last century, but it is my belief that we are living in a society where these divisions are becoming so pronounced as to incur the wrath of many [1,2]. I believe that in the capitalist society we live in, those who have the wealth are consumed in their own excessive needs and their outlook on life is colored by their thought of economic profit. Here I am talking about balance and not demanding views. Thus, they fail to take care of the needs of other people who depend on them for their own living. Politics and sociology are outside the remit of this paper and yet they have a bearing on the content, for it is the aim of this dissertation to find a possible solution or an alternative way of thinking through counseling and self-development, in order for the hierarchy present in society nowadays to impact less negatively on least well-to-do individuals who become the victim of systems, and also help individuals to find solutions for themselves and others surround them, finally having a more satisfied and fulfilling life.
This dissertation attempts to outline the nature of systems in society and how they impact on individuals. It traces the origins of systems and discusses their pros and cons in society. While determining the limits of system, it also attempts to provide what I would consider to be a solution to the problems, even though it is largely idealistic in purport. I have chosen to present this dissertation through the medium of auto-ethnography, which suits the purpose of my writing as I will explain subsequently in the introduction, using the heuristic method. The origin of systems and links to Counseling and Psychotherapy. Firstly, a succinct definition of terms is called for. Since I propose to discuss systemic groups and their effect on society, a definition of 'systems' would help further the analysis. In one of his seminal works on the notion of systems, Bela Banathy defines systems in these terms: The systems view is a world-view that is based on the discipline of SYSTEM INQUIRY. Central to systems inquiry is the concept of SYSTEM. In the most general sense, system means a configuration of parts connected and joined together by a web of relationships (1996: 56). More often than not, the word systems are used to refer specifically to self-regulating systems that are a body of entities that judges and corrects itself. Self-regulating systems are found everywhere in nature. They include ecological systems, climate, and our own bodies that operate by them.
Systemic groups pervade the world we live in and sometimes we remain unaware of our belonging to these groups, or take them for granted. The family is a systemic group, religion is another one. The company we work in is a system; the department we evolve in is a system. The educational system is often one which influences us early in life. Bureaucrats and institutionalized administrators often map out our education based on what they fathom to be the best education. They influence, decide and implement and leave little to the teacher or to the schools themselves. Many so-called system theorists have sought to destabilize such systems in order to render them applicable to everyday life. For instance, the influential work of Peter Senge provides detailed discussion of the commonplace critique of educational systems grounded in conventional assumptions about learning, including the problems with fragmented knowledge and lack of holistic learning from the «machine-age thinking» that became a «model of school separated from daily life.» It is in a similar fashion that systems theorists attempt to provide alternatives and variations on orthodox theories with individuals such as Weber, Durkheim in sociology and Taylor in scientific management 1911. These were ensconced in classical assumptions. The theorists sought holistic methods by developing systems concepts that could be integrated with different areas, along the lines of Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory in 1968 [3]. In my work in the USA offering trainings to families and children I could realize that, sometimes these children wanted to improve themselves and even their natural self was in a newer generation perspective. Thus many adults with the inflexible inability to learn with newer generation, instead of learning and listening to them many families thought they always knew better and put the children in a position of submission instead of equality.
Similarly, psychology, and especially psychotherapy comprises branches which specialize in or utilize systems or systemic groups for the purpose of healing. For example, family systems therapy is quite established in psychotherapy. In a similar vein, Systems psychology is a branch of psychology that studies human behavior and experience in complex systems. It is inspired by systems theory and systems thinking, and based on the theoretical work of Gregory Bateson [4] and others. For instance, Family Constellations Systemic Constellations or also named as family constellation is an experiential process that aims to release and resolve profound tensions within and between people. The method was influenced by Edmund Husserl, the father of phenomenology [5]; Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy [6] the pioneer of transgenerational systemic thinking; Virginia Satir [7], who developed family sculpture, the precursor of Systemic Constellations Bert Hellinger [8]. Thus the study of systems can be a productive and positive of determining what ails society and of possibly finding a solution to the problem, which as I underlined before is the aim of this dissertation. I propose that this can be done through auto-ethnography.
We are surrounded by institutions which are systemic groups. If being part of a system is part of nature itself, why do we continue try to understand or develop it when in ancient time it was shown to function by itself? It is like our body which functions all naturally for its own survival. Why struggle to create when all is already created. Why do we build and destroy it later? This is a question which we all know the causes and consequences in our planet and nature. Therefore it gets back to the human ability to think and create, which differentiates us from other animals. Recently I woke up thinking how we can be called rational animals when the so-called irrational animals many times have been demonstrated to function in a fair system of survival. I wonder whether our planet will survive our individualism. I believe that one has to be left out to be able to do it all. Who will do this and will that person survive alone? Or create a new civilization? With hypnotherapy how many worlds exist? Are there other worlds and systems which we are not able to perceive from where we are? If yes how can we move to a next step? Can Auto- ethnographical work be a way to develop ourselves therefore there world outside us?
Auto-Ethnography
Before attempting to further explain the aims of this writing, it is imperative to define auto-ethnography and outline its usefulness for this project. According to Holt, 'Auto-ethnography is a genre of writing and research that connects the personal to the cultural, placing the self within a social context (2003). For another proponent of the form, Tierney, 'auto-ethnography confronts dominant forms of representation and power in an attempt to reclaim, through self-reflective response, representational spaces that have marginalized those of us at the borders' [9]. It is the understanding of the critic that it is only a form of writing that confounds theorists as to its usefulness that is in fact most useful to represent people who stand outside of society and wish to critique its core. Auto-ethnographic texts and analyses are written with the author featuring in the writing, these texts are usually written in the first person and feature dialogue, emotion, and self-consciousness as relational and institutional stories affected by history, social structure, and culture [10].
However, the genre has its dissidents and has suffered from ardent criticism [11,12]. Works written in this form have been accused of being too self-indulgent and narcissistic [13]. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this dissertation, it is this form of analysis that is deemed to be the most appropriate as the main aim of this dissertation is precisely to stand outside systems and offer a discussion of their influence on people's lives and how they should, according to me, is changed. Beyond autoethnography I propose a newer way to see life, that is through respecting each life based on its own experience and where the power, recognition and value comes from within the self and not from others. Thus to continue focusing in the solution we come to the point is trying to be as chameleon and fit in each other own world of self-recognition and be able to help and offer what is needed in order to each individual feel complete and satisfied in his/ her journey in life. In here I name the project and the approach 'inextravisualization', which means be able to explore the inner world through autoethonographic way, through the observation of self. It allows for different perceptions and respect of self-development. Inextravizualization is the outside world of the self as a reflective way as mirror of the own self.
Methodology
Inextravisualization is a project which offers a just small portion of understanding of the idea and how it can be done. Since the focus here is to understand first systemic views, autoethnography to them comes to Inextravizualization. Nonetheless, there still exist barriers on how and to who is presented in a respectful and ethical way. The idea also is based on studies of systemic constellation which bring the understanding of separate the self from others first to understand the self-first to them together bring to the whole integration. For a healthier integration, development of the self is necessary first, which for many years have been separated by age, sex, race, religion and other background. Science is thus becoming aware of the importance of integration versus separation. Accordingly, the method of analysis that I have chosen is one which is most phenomenological/intuitive and less focused on quantitative analysis or empirical data: the heuristic method [14-17]. The founder of the concept, Herbert Simon, understood that the method implied that the thought process of the person was arbitrary and intuitive. Simply, heuristics are simple, efficient ways of understanding a problem. Often the method is compared to trial and error in that it does not follow a set pattern. Given the choice of auto-ethnography for this dissertation, heuristics I believe is the appropriate method to use as it tests different hypotheses at the same time and allows for a variety of approaches to the discussion of systems and their impact on the world, which I propose here.
In this way, I will be using my own experiences and thought processes to study and analyze in as much depth as possible the systems that are at play in the society nowadays, focusing on those that are most visible to us. Admittedly, this dissertation will not be an exhaustive one for the sheer lack of space it affords, and therefore I will distinctly divide it into three sections: the study of the different systems that I have been examining lately: family, organisation, institutions of power in society, their advantages and so on. Then, I will discuss the notion of hierarchy, which pervades most systems and I will attempt to determine how individuals suffer the brunt of the negative consequences of it. Finally, I offer possible solutions to these sufferings, through counseling. This Writing suggests new ways to encourage human developmental possibilities which will bring new avenues for systems which are less developed or privileged. However, in order for this network to operate, it is necessary to comprehend higher level systems which bring broader perspective to all. Many individuals try to achieve that goal in order to achieve wealth rather than development. Many times their judgment is clouded by the misunderstanding of higher level systems, since in order to develop any global system perspective the integration of one and all is necessary. Thus, the intention of the present essay is to underline the importance of developing all systems in parallel, instead of one system on its own.
Therefore this dissertation offers newer ways on how we can increasingly create novel ways, through an auto-ethnographic perspective, with which we can first take care of our inner needs. The idea proposed in this dissertation is to offer a possible fluxional idealism to aim at equality and social life to all, with fewer differences and more realism. This will take place with many different ideas which are analyzed, in a rational and fair way, during the course of this discussion. I suggest that these different ideas are used throughout the course of our generation and bring newer ways to see the world. The observation, based on auto-ethnographical human development, accesses dual differential causes and effects and aims for newer possibilities and feelings among individuals. Ultimately, the aim of this research is to look at the idea of systems through my own personal beliefs and value system. The rationale behind this is that each individual has their own perspective based in their own values, beliefs, family and many other systems created by themselves and which are acted out by each human being every second of time during their interactions [18,19].
System Relationship
The notion of kinship: Before embarking on a discussion of systems, it is crucial to understand how their components are linked and what importance such a link holds. Indeed, when we talk of systems, their inner connections are extremely important. Each particle is linked to the other in an intrinsic manner and it becomes quite relevant to term it kinship. Kinship is of course a matter of biology first and foremost. It is the relationship that exists between two or more people of the same family, having the same blood ties. It is a question of ancestry and belonging to the same gene pool. Later, with Levi-Strauss 1949 for example, kinship became relevant to anthropology and ethnography through the study of culture and the ties that bind people together through traditions, habits as well as ancestry and mating. From a broader perspective, kinship can be said to exist in society through connections forged not only by birth but also through different institutions: religion, work place and so on. Just like animals we form societies. Ants have their own law of formation depending on their systemic need for survival, which Maslow and Wilber grouped as part of the level of awareness among human beings. These levels take individuals to their development. Even within societies, there are different strata and sub-societies and circles. Durkheim 1895 and Weber both studied the subdivisions and classifications that are present through the various systems of society. One such system is that of organizations wherein there are many employees that operate a business like the well-oiled cogs of a machinery. The systems that we are more concerned with for the purpose of this dissertation are social and work systems and not family systems.
Dynamic System Groups and Network Integration
Indeed, working together with others in groups and teams is an increasingly common and fundamental part of modern business and contemporary life. High performing teams demonstrate the characteristic of what can be termed collective intelligence. This relates to the ability of people in a team, group or organisation to think and act in an aligned and coordinated fashion. As described by Banathy and quoted in the introduction, a system is a whole made up of different components that are in cohesion and work together to produce and regulate. Collective intelligence transforms separate individuals into a cohesive group and creates a team in which the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Dynamic Learning systemic group and this integration is about using cutting edge methods and techniques that improve the ability to learn and perform in a variety of areas. It offers stimulating exercises and step-by-step procedures that help individual to make better use of the most valuable resource they have. Just as the nervous system operates through the intercession of a thousand parts, these exercises and strategies have been drawn from working with individuals, conducting public seminars, and consulting and training within organizations and the public school system.
The product of dynamic learning and collective intelligence is what is known by Dilts [20] as generative collaboration. Generative collaboration involves people working together to create or generate something new, surprising and beyond the capacities of any of the group members individually. Through generative collaboration, individuals are able to maximize their abilities to the fullest and discover and apply resources of whose existence they were unaware. They draw new ideas and resources out of each other. Thus, the performance or output of the group as a whole is much greater than it would be if the individuals were working by themselves. Thus, following Dilts's reasoning, working within and with a system is lucrative and produces a range of positive results insofar as all the individuals who are operating within it are working in collaboration with each other for the common good. It is an ideal situation where there is no such thing as individualism and hierarchy is not a problem. However, such a system is quite rare in the contemporary world of capitalism and profit-making business. Indeed, what happens in the real world is the complete opposite. There is a visible discrepancy between the ideal system Dilts depicts and the one which lends itself to our interpretation on a daily basis.
Hence, in this dissertation I discuss the meaning of 'systemic view' through a physical and subliminal world, which is interconnected to each other forming one whole entity. For centuries philosophers like Plato have attempted to understand this duality connected as one. Each individual is shown to be different from the other and yet, if we look closely, there are different beings within the self. Within society we have different roles to play, which each represent a different self or being. Within the family system, we play a variety of roles as brother, father, son and so on. In each role we have different tasks and different reactions. We are also at the same time mind and body and this duality takes on many forms within these different roles, including of conscious and unconscious. I suggest a metaphor to describe the duality of inside and outside I offer an analogy which involves fish. I once saw in a video of Albert Einstein, in which he also mentioned fish as part of his research. In some of my trainings I gave the examples of fish. I enjoy sitting in front of a lake and watching the fish, some of which come to the surface, allowing their body to surface briefly and get back inside. Once I kept watching them and I began to realize how some of the actually are very brave and emerge for longer periods at a time. In a constant experimentation with their abilities to perceive the outside world and risk to get to know the unknown, fish demonstrate the ability to get out of their comfort zone and take risks to get food [21,22].
I believe that systems are formed and created through subliminal and energetic perspectives. This information is secretly hidden and protected because of those who do not follow systemic order who created them to maintain our society functioning. The issue is those people many a time claim to want to help or develop new ideas in order to bring satisfaction to their ego. Thus all individuals working in the field go through these development and training in order to be able to serve and work properly in our society. Nevertheless it is still clear that very few individuals give themselves to help develop society. They are blind to their own selfish desires and wish for fulfillment in the physical world, being unaware of the subliminal world. They are akin to the fish which stay at the bottom of the lake, content with whatever sustenance and companionship they find there. Those who seek to know more and beyond the surface look deeper within the fabric of the system in which they are stuck and think beyond their comfort zone.
The problem with Hierarchy
Moreover, not only do certain people sate their own appetites at the expense of others, but they are also more often than not to be found on the upper rungs of society, thereby rendering the system more and more flawed because they believe in their superiority. Not everyone has the knowledge of systems and how to use them for their own benefits. Those who do I suggest often take advantage of the lack of awareness of other human beings within the system to render them further disservice and keep them in the dark. The problem which is underlined is the interaction between each individual and the systemic groups to which they belong. According to where we are we receive different levels of awareness and information. This information is necessary to bring new experiences to human beings in life. This information is grouped according to each individual's status, I believe. There is severe inequality between what those at the bottom learn and what those in positions of power know. There are thus many levels of awareness within social systems. However, among these levels some of these systemic groups create illusions. Human beings' development brought new ways of living which many times engender anger, aggression and killings. Those attitudes were formed based on a systemic belief which came with us through several generations [23]. There are unconscious ways in which individuals express their feelings towards themselves, which many times are expressed physically. Scientific studies have been developing many different theories to study those behaviors among human beings (Behaviorisms, Neo-Behaviorisms), which express how their lives have been internalized in themselves. A systemic internal visualization can be productive or harmful to them, society or simply to the development of civilization.
There has been marketing and development of new ideas for the systemic perspectives on human development in order to bring happiness. However the question that this raises is whether happiness implies development. Rather, we should ask ourselves whether this does not create even more issues in society. Does it mean we are doing well or we are just helping and cooperating with the development of anger, aggression and survival of pain? How can science in life still be fed by people's selfishness in a materialistic world and how do we close our eyes on this view? I personally cannot understand how people have become so individualistic as to take advantage of systems rather than help others using the knowledge they have. For example, those who have will not give to those who are not educated or cannot work. It seems to me that those who have knowledge hide this knowledge from those who do not possess it instead of sharing it. This is what I cannot condone and I believe that counseling and psychotherapy have a role to play in this, as I will elaborate further on in this discussion.
Meanwhile, financial survival in our society is still an issue. Hierarchy which originated from the time of kings and kingdoms still keeps us alive in the feeling of superiority and hierarchical levels. However, the idealistic desire of equality has been failing through many years in history, as we can see with the failure of the communist perspective. Nevertheless, I believe there are people who are aware of this situation and seek to promote equality. An author friend of mine writes on her Facebook page: We are part of a social machine that literally «programs» our subconscious. It makes us insatiable little individualistic robots that worry only about their own welfare. We grow up manipulated by mechanisms that lead us to believe in rampant consumerism, where happiness can be purchased. And yet we are surprised when hatred and violence come knocking at our door. Later, talking about the rules and regulations that pervade our social system, she states pithily: Spare me of the dogmas, those truths about how one is supposed to live and the certainty affirming that life is only a struggle to survive. That we have failed when we have no diplomas, that we are losers when unemployed, that we cannot be loved if we do not match the ideals of beauty. And that we cannot be sustained only by dreams. This, I will not accept!.
I cannot but be moved to acquiesce with her on the matter. Zara's disgust at the hierarchy present within system echoes my own cries against those who take advantage of it in order to control other people. I have spent the last sixteen years of my life trying to understand, through counseling, why people are the way they are in the modern world, and I believe that systems corrupt people from the outset. In the capitalist world of today individuals feel the necessity of competition for achievement and power, rather than look at them in order to understand and help the continuance of the planet. We are satisfying each generation with newer ideas for the development of all with the advent of technology and the numerous advances that are made monthly, or even daily. Thus, I suggest that the world offers options which create illusions for individuals in a way where time passes by and they do not achieve what they truly want. Leaving these individuals’ dreams unfulfilled is one of the ways in which wealthy individuals create business and illusion for many individuals. It is my belief that they pretend to be helping others and actually have their goals met through selfishness and egocentric views.
I have spent many years in the psychotherapy field. Many of my clients have come to me with questions about their needs and desires and feelings of dissatisfaction. I realized through counseling some of my clients that help comes from different perspectives value and beliefs, which can in truth aid an individual, or not. Many wish to help others, some have it in their nature others want to learn and yet others just give, thinking that in doing so, they are just living life as it is supposed to be. Things happen by themselves and controlling them would thus just stop the process itself as we know by the phenomenology of the moment from being here and now. There exist multiple influences on our theories, through techniques which came along many years ago, through a variety of ways. One of them is through hypnotherapy. Ericksonian hypnotherapy 1979 was meant as a means of understanding the way that the mind works and the counselor convincing the patient of the thoughts. It is used as a manner of correcting behavior and inducing different reactions.
Stephen Gilligan has further developed the idea and I was personally trained by him to use Ericksonian hypnotherapy in order to help my clients. However, I believe that we naturally hypnotise people in one way or the other in order for them to do our bidding or respond in the way we want them to. Threatening and pleasing individual's takes place in many different ways and forms in order to achieve what we want in life. This outlined an attitude and beliefs discovered by human nature for survival which we no longer need. Thus, individuals still search for these in order to fulfill their own greed and ego, whereas in order to live well and healthily, individuals need no more than food, shelter and medical support. Although admittedly idealistic, the goal is to form a society in which everyone is satisfied with what they are. They have to live in a way in which they can cooperate within each other bringing peace and development to all. Nevertheless, the question that is immediately raised is that of how individuals can be change or alter their own demeanor for the greater good [24].
Possible Solution
Perhaps we should begin by questioning the need of hierarchy as more collective view instead of power and ego, and then consequently find the balance in man, king, power and ego. This seems to be responsible to maintain alive human survival through striving and motivation, therefore bring back society to the way things used to be in the past. Human selfishness or even human loving desire for others trying to help one another build up amount of networks which could be also just the fact that our planet just became over populated and losing the control on its on society ability to keep the basic survival needs based products and industrial and economic development. This also could be fruit of desire to help instead of damage. That is why here the answer is to help ourselves first in order to be able to help others, just like in airplane emergencies when we have to put the mask first in ourselves in order to help the survival of the child next to us. The problem was exacerbated when survival now is beyond a mask, shelter or food, when desire for power, recognition, and better quality of life took place.
Self-Reflexivity and Self-Development: Towards a Collaborative Future
I believe this view is a possible solution for integrating people to lesser system and more quality, therefore being able to bring balance, quality of life and opportunity to all individuals including undeveloped countries for the next generations and a more peaceful planet. How can we integrate so many different ideas and systems? Finding ways to maintain individuals healthier and capable to heal themselves first in ethical ways, so through an auto-ethnological path be able to respect other individuals, based on respect and love starting on them. Since anger, aggression, and many other feelings are only projections of or on inability to deal with our pains and deceptions in life. This brings us back to the stage where we were not educated and prepared to understand our feelings. Thus the question again is if mankind can be satisfied and complete with the discoveries and levels of development which we achieved in order to stop maintain these levels. Thus with this finding is clear that in any civilization problems happens and then adjustments are necessary for health and safety aspects. Hypnosis and unconscious awareness could be ways to individual perform in a manner which contributes to this level of peace and healthfulness. Thus who are those who decides who have what? How? And when? Do we again fall into hierarchical systems? Are those systems ethical? Who are those who are watching for these small steps of development? Why is it taking so long when it could be faster? If time is a matter of a momentary perspective, are changes not already happening? In a higher level of awareness systems, where these small systems groups are formed to perform exchanges and development for planet earth, how they are being responsible for the smaller systems, if when we move away to newer age and development we became blind by our unreachable view of newer generations?
Self-Development and Education
Experience is, for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person's ideas, and none of my own ideas, are as authoritative as my experience. It is to experience that I must return again and again, to discover a closer approximation to truth as it is in the process of becoming in me. (Carl Rogers, on becoming a person). The reason that I place such a great importance on auto-ethnography and my viewpoint in relation to my experiences in this discussion is that, as Carl Rogers has described, there is no greater gauge than that of experience and what we have undergone changes us and our way of viewing the world fundamentally. Psychotherapy comes into place when we can observe ourselves and understand how we are perpetually moving. Moment by moment we understand and perceive waves of information and communication among individuals and living beings, in a way in which we can survive exchanging harmonization in a synchronized manner. I have been many days in self knowledge practice: I started the practice in my thirty-five days’ worth of pilgrimage walking in Spain. However during this walk I was many times in contact with people. Being alone is not an easy and simple task; I realized I had to search inside me for strength and courage. Later on, when my marriage failed, and I was choosing to get divorce, I once again had to search answers inside of myself in order to find the answers to my questions about life and love.
This timing in life is almost like a bridge that allows me to be productive and connected to other physical things. Therefore when I am inside myself I almost see outside world as a dream reality moment, a place which I connect to and disconnect from life. The interesting feeling is related to how many dreams can become true in this dream world, especially when the dreams are consistent for a long period of time. It is beautiful and shiny, like a fairy tale. It is just a shame that very few people believe in it. Recently, I have to question the very education system in which we evolve, much like Senge [25] does as I underlined in the introduction to this dissertation. Studying a Masters programme for example as I did, I was given a choice of options which are set and which are selected by academics, which itself is not a bad thing, but seen from a broader perspective, it means that my knowledge is controlled by those who have power and are above me. Nevertheless, I deem myself lucky because I have undertaken this Masters in a bid to improve myself and have some direction in my quest for knowledge and understanding of society and individuals. I suggest that relevant information is given to individuals according to what station they find themselves in, in life. Indeed, the crux of the matter is that we receive knowledge only if we seek for it and those who do not know that such information exist are outside the thinking machine and lower in the hierarchy. However, to be higher in the hierarchy, individuals need to have discovered how to better themselves and I believe; they need the help of people with knowledge,
Evidently, there are systemic groups which maintain their strong beliefs in order to maintain tradition and importance to themselves while they are living life. Religious groups for example are founded upon doctrines that cannot be changed and their followers are in a hierarchy that is not challenged because it would endanger the very pillar of the systemic group. Similarly, if a government did not work in a system of hierarchy, it would topple, it would seem as there are always those who will be at the top. However, in an ideal world, such hierarchy could be a mere detail if all had the same knowledge and abilities. Therefore I start to realize and ask myself how much knowledge and education is really important to our society. I have always believed education is the foundation for development and better life conditions. I believe that people should seek to better themselves and look within themselves in order to achieve the level of enlightenment needed for this sharing to happen. It is because I have studied myself and my own interaction with people and have read extensively that I am able to display a certain level of self-reflexivity and self-development.
I suggest that individuals should think of their actions as impacting upon the lives of others. As in counseling and regressive therapy [26], it is for the individual to retrace his/her own steps to the moment where a decision changes the lives of others around him/her. If everyone becomes aware of their own failings and seeks to improve him/her self, then the world would be a better and safer place. Towards cohesion and collaboration. The problem of grace is fundamentally a problem of integration and that what is to be integrated is the diverse parts of the mind - especially those multiple levels of which one extreme are called "consciousness" and the other the "unconscious". For the attainment of grace, the reasons of the heart must be integ rated with the reasons of reason. Bateson, one of the masterminds behind systemic thinking and its relationship to psychotherapy argues that what we feel and what we think must be in communion for realization to take place. The joining of mind and heart, mind and body, the dualities that pervade our very own individual life system is similar to that of the joining of parts in every system. For society to be better, all its components must be on equal terms and on similar foundations. As I mentioned with Dilts's notion of generative collaboration (2000), collective intelligence and collaborative work is of utmost importance for a system to perform in an optimum way.
Like everything in life with causation, the human need for comfort in believing that happiness is only material, has brought many negative consequences to our planet today. Consequently this affected all, including offspring of those who were living with their desire for happiness for themselves and their family only. However, through human awareness coming to a point where more and more individuals are beginning to understand the need for sharing and educating each other based on each level, I hope that we will all come one day to a peaceful planet and better place to live. The goal that I hope to reach is to outline how cohesion and group-thinking aids the whole system and how it is able to create a world which is conducive to peace and equality. Some theorists have analyzed different systems at length, there are those whom I am connected to and whom I believe to be working together towards developmental ideas for our living place. People such us Robert Dilts, with his seminal Changing belief systems with NLP 1990, and who personally trained me in generative therapy; Stephen Gilligan under whose guidance I learned Ericksonian hypnotherapy in order to help my clients during counseling, Gregory Bateson, Milton Erickson (Hypnotherapy) and many others who anonymously, I believe, have been in everyday life part of this development. My own development is far from complete and I am striving to help myself in order to be able to help others through counseling. The therapists and counselors I mentioned above have all striven to demonstrate how systems can play a part in developing society, if used appropriately and if everyone is given the chance to acquire knowledge.
The intention in this section is to explain how individuals communicate with each other within each system and how, many times, it is difficult to help changes happen within a strong based system. We always have this issue where we try and convey something to someone but due to some reason, he/she did not understand us properly and he/she ends up understanding something completely different. Barriers to communication truncate our messages and transmission of knowledge can be incomplete, yet I believe that we must always try again and again. Nonetheless, often, in forming new systems people want to convey and form new perspectives thus making them follow what the specific view or perspective says is right or wrong (as I already discussed in other assignments discussing the subjectivity of the topic). Moreover, it so happens that at some point or the other, they take upon themselves the superiority of classifying individuals as adequate or not, instead of valuing human beings according to their willingness and cooperation towards other individuals in their everyday life. It seems like our values are transformed into ideals which brings frustration and anger instead of love and compassion.
However, I cannot but help thinking that our world would benefit from a radical change of perspective and a new system of thinking to follow Senge et al. thoughts. For the theorists, in order to reach a sustainable society within the biosphere we need fundamental shifts in the way the economic system affects the system within which it resides [27]. 'The challenge today is to develop sustainable businesses that are compatible with the current economic reality'. 'Focusing on eco-efficiency may distract companies from pursuing radically different products and business models - changes that require shifts in mental models. This is unlikely to occur without mastering the human dimensions of learning and change'. With this new business logic emerging, we begin with rethinking how firms create value and redefine the characters - customers, employees, suppliers - and ultimately the company itself. In short, to enable us to tell a different story, it becomes of fundamental importance to understand a customer and serve a genuine need - which also represents a radical shift in business models. I believe that Senge's new system of beliefs and values echoes my notion of equality and fairness in that it reinforces the idea that all the different parts of the system must be taken into account. It is not simply the product or profit that must be at the forefront of our quest, but the people at the bottom of the hierarchy, who indeed should be treated with equal respect and love for they are the consumers and the workers, their dual role making it imperative for those in power to consider them. After all, the King is the servant of the people.
Spirituality and the Quest for Answers
As I mentioned before, I have been on pilgrimages and retreats and have sought to improve myself through meditation with the sole purpose of arriving at a stage where I treat people equally, fairly and love one and all as if they were my own brethren. In the different systems in which I evolve, I use my skills of counseling to help others. The need to belong to something or somewhere brings us to experience information to which is related and connected to what is believed at the moment. Therefore choosing where we are, with who we are makes a whole difference. We can live in different worlds and actually a person can take us to their world in order to create a net of individual's which follows their line of thinking. The idea of networking stems from this very concept. Many times this is done without awareness of what is happening. Actually I believe that many successful leaders or great people from our history have been living their lives through their set of beliefs without trying to show or prove anything but primarily to themselves, in order to search for an answer for questions which are not clear to us. They have a spiritual presence and share their energy with those who follow them. How they do it is a question which I ask myself.
Others use this sharing of energy to negative ends, which I do not condone. This is a question which takes a lifetime to answer. I believe that we cannot try to control this situation in order to become 'the one'. We are 'the one', all of us we are 'the one', because we all struggle to be the single powerful individual: The one who succeeds, who is recognized, the one who is loved, the one who can live fully every moment in life. Not only with happiness but thus with all the feelings which bring development to our soul in any moment and second of life which was given to us in this life naming GOD a being which is not related to any type of religion vision or materialized thing thus by just accepting who we are now. We are all, and not one, we are brothers, sisters, mother, father, child, healthy, sick, happy, sad, love, hate, beautiful, ugly, male, female. We simply are; without a name without a need without a goal or desire of something. It is my belief that we are all capable of spiritual sharing even if many are not aware of this.
Since William James's time, it has been already explained how mediums has been part of human development through years. For me it is still a question as to how the academic field through the years managed to blind the practitioners who were willing to learn and discover new ways to develop themselves. Professionals in the field would try to label my actions with depressive behavior or many other labels. However, I call it self-knowledge, courage to give up one year of my life for myself, where I detached from material things and even loving people around me. I had to face myself, I had to get to know me, and although this is a task I have been doing since I was sixteen and decided to embark upon a journey of self-discovery. Among the questions that were repeatedly emerging was: Who am I? Where are my feelings from? Who are related to them? How come the world is in the situation that it is? How come so much wealth and poverty? Where is this world we live in? I slowly began to realize that every trip I took everywhere was the same physical world, with economical differences which influences how people think and behave. Yet, I believe that these differences would dissipate if every individual would so much as dip into their own unconscious and weigh the pros and cons of their actions. Counselling and therapy are not just for those who suffer from depression and neurosis. They help us understand how we have come to be the way we are and how we can change it and I suggest that one of the ways of altering the ways of perceiving and doing things is through spirituality and the search for oneself.
Implications for Further Practice
So far what I have underlined is what I think are the impact of systems on society and how I think that education and selfdevelopment can aid in the betterment of society as a whole. However, I am acutely aware that this is a task that is not easy and will not appeal to everyone. I do not profess to be able to change the whole world with this dissertation, that would be presumptuous, but I do believe that if each one of us carries out a part of this task in the counseling or psychotherapy room, we would do the world service. Moreover, I am slowly coming to the realization that also what we do with these moments when we try to develop ourselves and those around us through counseling, there can be disequilibrium in what I call energy exchange. Sometimes, we invest a great deal of energy into clients but they do not wish to change. At other times, counselors themselves are lacking in insight. Therefore, I believe that counselors and psychotherapists should start with self-improvement. In addition, in a balance between action and reactions, mass and energy as Albert Einstein demonstrated in his work of relativity and failed and we all continue on trying unsolved questions of great minds.
For example, G. Cantor, a great Mathematician who was proclaimed insane for, what I believe was him moving to a different dimension where his physical body could barely hold on to the amount of energy attained in his body, leading him to suicide [28]. Unfortunately or not our physical body is a condensed material, which can only contain a limited amount of energy at a time. All these experiences could be related to spirituality. I am a fervent believer in spirituality and I use it a great deal in my practice. I suggest that using spiritual energy to create links with individuals enables the counselor to approach the case at hand in a more genuine way, creating a bond, albeit professional, which can be used to help the client understand his/her predicament, but also how to overcome it using their own energy and their own means through self-improvement. I believe that if they can heal themselves and comprehend the importance of such a link between healer and patient, they will also be able to create such a bond with others and help them [29,30].
Conclusion
Willy Wonka: [Spoken]Hold your breath. Count to three [Sung] Come with me. And you’ll be. In a world of pure imagination. Take a look. And you’ll see. Into your imagination we’ll begin. With a spin. Traveling in The world of my creation. What we’ll see. Will defy Explanation. If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it anything you want to, do it. Want change the world? There’s nothing, to it. There is no Life I know. To compare with pure imagination living there you’ll be free if you truly wish to be. If you want to view paradise. Simply look around and view it anything you want to, do it Want change the world? There’s nothing to it be free if you truly wish to be. If you want to view paradise. Simply look around and view it anything you want to, do it Want change the world? There’s nothing to it. I woke up this morning as my usual morning, made my coffee turned on my computer, and I sent a message to Gregory Bateson’s daughter, together with a message to Mathias Vargas, once again trying to understand the world we live in. Usually in the morning I also watch a video from Willy Wonka that I used to watch as a child, dreaming always with a world of pure imagination, a place where we could truly be free. Thus this morning something different happened while I was watching the video. This amazing wave of love passed through me, the unconditional love that I believe to have and live towards human beings. The type of feeling I illustrate above is the very kind that I wish that people would have for each other, a love that would be unconditional and lead to prosperity instead of strife, wars and struggles for power and money. I am of course aware that my plea is idealistic and might make the reader of this dissertation smile, but it is a genuine thought for humanity and a genuine concern for the future of humankind that spurs me to write these words.
Throughout this writing, my concern has been to highlight what I believe are the flaws in the systems that pervade society, while giving due credit to their importance as regulators in society and instill a feeling of belonging in many people. Yet, as I have demonstrated, they also create rifts between people especially when there are discrepancies between what individuals know and get in society, creating a malaise. There are many different ideas, perspectives and reflection that can be brought up to discuss any and many different and varied topics. Thus only the reader itself can search for his/her own understanding. Offering these types of discussion to the reader while bringing different points of view helps the individual see things through a range of perspectives and brings the individual to the conclusion which suits him or her better, according to what is being lived. My aim has been to highlight the injustices and suggest a way to overcome them, while demonstrating how I personally try to implement my way of thinking on a daily basis. Many people talk about inequality and injustice and few are those who offer a solution. My solution may be idealistic to a great extent, but I believe that we need to start somewhere and every step that is taken is in the right direction.
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