The Anorectic Process in the Family: A Six-Stage Model as a Guide for Individual Therapy

This article presents a conceptual framework for individual treatment with chronic anorectic patients. In the first part of the article, the six-stage model for the anorectic process developed over the past years by M. Selvini-Palazzoli and her team is briefly explained. After presenting the model, we then discuss some related concepts, namely, "family game," "rule," and "strategy." Finally, the therapeutic technique in individual treatment is discussed. Two basic assumptions underlie this technique: first, the therapeutic relationship is instrumental, its main purpose being to improve the patient's personal relations outside therapy; second, the focus of the treatment is on the strategic incapacity of the patient who is caught up in and unable to cope with the "concealed family game."     

The Treatment of Children Through Brief Therapy of Their Parents

This is a report on the successful resolution of behavior problems (encopresis and anorexia, respectively) in two small children through the brief therapy of their parents. Treatment was based on general systems theory and the cybernetic model and employed interventions designed specifically to bring about rapid change in family interaction. The course of the treatments, as well as the technical problems arising out of such rapid changes, are discussed.     

“A Matter of Life and Death”: Kawabata on the Value of Art after the Atomic Bombings

This article explores the possible interpretations—and the implications of those interpretations—of a comment about the importance of art made by Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972), later the first Japanese Nobel laureate for literature: that “looking at old works of art is a matter of life and death.” (In 1949, Kawabata visited Hiroshima in his capacity as president of the Japan literary society P.E.N. to inspect the damage caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that helped end World War II. On his way back to his home in Kamakura, he stopped in Kyoto. He came under severe criticism for “sightseeing” at such a time. This comment was his response.) The introduction explains why we should take him seriously as a commentator on art. The body of the article examines why our looking at art might be more, not less, important after the post‐War situation, the kinds of art Kawabata might have meant, why some possibilities are more likely than others, and how they differ in what they offer us and the value of art under conditions of trauma and mass trauma.     

Interactional Complexity and Communication

This paper draws attention to an oversimplification that we believe has been frequently made in the analysis of interpersonal communication. This happens when one uses interpersonal communication models that do not match the interactional complexity of the system under observation. The aim of the paper is to present some conceptual parameters (Territoriality, Temporality, Duality) of an N-adic model of communication in the effort to match the interactional complexity of the N-person games. In other words, if we accept the so-called "systems" approach, we need communication models that allow us to observe different levels of interactional complexity. The observer (the therapist) may decide on which level to take up his or her stance with reference to the particular case at hand and the goals in studying it.