Autobiography of a Theory: Developing the Theory of Living Human Systems and Its Systems-Centered Practice (International Library of Group Analysis, 11)

(Jessica Kingsley) Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, PA. Account of the author's professional life documenting major developments in group analysis and showing how a theory is formulated from intellectual and personal contexts and how a theory-based practice is generated. Softcover. Systems-centred practice and its theory are one of the most important developments in group psychology in the last forty years. In this book Yvonne Agazarian traces the evolution of her ideas and their application to create a meta-theory, the theory of living human systems. Autobiography of a Theory follows Agazarian as she thinks her way through different stages, creating a theoretical background for SAVI (System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction), which she developed with Anita Simon, developing a theory of the Invisible Group for the book she wrote with Richard Peters and expanding on existing group dynamics theories. With members of the General Systems Committee of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, she joined the challenge of formulating a systems theory for group and arrived at her theory of living human systems from which she derived the methods and techniques of systems-centred therapy for groups and individuals. This fascinating account of her professional life not only documents major developments in group analysis, but also shows how a theory is formulated from intellectual and personal contexts, and how a theory-based practice is generated. Autobiography of a Theory......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 7 Introduction:Curiosity and Early Musings......Page 8 1 Trying to Make it Make Sense:Change as a Function of Discrimination and Integration......Page 24 2 The First Try at Theory......Page 44 3 Second Theory:Theory of the Invisible Group Bridge Construct of Role between the Individual and the Group......Page 71 4 Theory of the Group-As-A-Whole......Page 103 5 Thinking Systems......Page 143 6 Systems-Centered Practice......Page 174 7 A Theory of Living Human Systems and its Systems-Centered Practice......Page 222 References......Page 256 Subject Index......Page 264 Name Index......Page 270 Annotation "In this book Yvonne Agazarian traces the evolution of her ideas and their application to create a meta-theory, the theory of living human systems. Autobiography of a Theory follows Agazarian as she thinks her way through different stages, creating a theoretical background for SAVI (System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction), which she developed with Anita Simon, developing a theory of the Invisible Group for the book she wrote with Richard Peters and expanding on existing group dynamics theories."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In this book Yvonne Agazarian traces the evolution of her ideas and their application to create a meta-theory, the theory of living human systems. Autobiography of a Theory follows Agazarian as she thinks her way through different stages, creating a theoretical background for SAVI (System for Analyzing Verbal Interaction), which she developed with Anita Simon, developing a theory of the Invisible Group for the book she wrote with Richard Peters and expanding on existing group dynamics theories.

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

Having studied with a small psychoanalytic group in England, I joined the second year in the Psychoanalytic Studies Institute soon after moving to Philadelphia and became immersed in Ferenzi,Jones and, of course, Freud (the Brill translation-Strachey had not yet finished his!).