On Wisdom

Abstract

This article explores some of the features involved in making wise decisions in couples and family therapy. Delineating what qualities are involved in making wise decisions in life--so as to live the "good life" in the polis, and the necessary contributions of life experiences in this task--was first discussed by Aristotle. A major problem that therapists face today is that our society offers many different ways of living well--or for that matter, badly--and our theories do the same. Family therapy theories are not value free. I clarify that different family theories embody different values: clear boundaries, good attachments, the ability to communicate, and so on. If our theories foster certain values, then, as Isaiah Berlin has made clear, seeking to achieve a particular value leads to placing less value on another. The article concludes with some thoughts about values that therapists could appropriately follow in their work.

Thinking, Doing, and the Ethics of Family Therapy

“…Borrowing from the ancient Greeks, Grunebaum refers to this integration of knowledge and experience as phronesis, or "practical wisdom" (Grunebaum, 2006). For example, in conducting therapy with a particular family, the therapist may find herself using a pattern of family interaction, brought to mind by several specific features of the case, to which she then compares and contrasts the case as more information emerges, looking for consistencies with, and discrepancies from, the pattern.…”

“…He suggested that the therapist herself is the link between knowledge and action, and went on to examine the sources of knowledge that therapists use to make decisions-many of which are inherently ethical in character-in clinical practice (Grunebaum, 1988(Grunebaum, , 2006. But if therapists make ethical decisions, what is the relevant source of knowledge?…”

“…For example, in conducting therapy with a particular family, the therapist may find herself using a pattern of family interaction, brought to mind by several specific features of the case, to which she then compares and contrasts the case as more information emerges, looking for consistencies with, and discrepancies from, the pattern. She uses this information, in turn, to generate questions, hypotheses, and inferences, leading most likely to a richer, filled out version of the initial pattern but potentially to the rejection of that pattern as inadequate for understanding the dynamics of this particular family (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996;Grunebaum, 2006;S. Holmes, 2006;S.…”

“…B. Holmes, 2009). Here, as in any other field of human knowledge, the automatic retrieval of pattern-based information allows practitioners (each expert in their own fields) to seamlessly (Grunebaum, 2006) organize vast amounts of information in complex ways and into patterns that overcome the general limits to human information processing (Chase & Simon, 1973;Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996).…”

“…B. Holmes, 2009). This manner of organizing information through pattern recognition allows the therapist to probe relevant processes in the family and to make in-the-moment decisions that are guided-in terms of how the family or any individual in it might react-by knowledge inferred from the pattern in question (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996;Grunebaum, 2006;S. Holmes, 2006;S.…”