The ‘Not to be Opened’ Letter: Family Secrets, Hidden Knowledge and Violate Prohibitions

Crago, Hugh

doi:10.1002/j.1467-8438.1997.tb00275.x

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Crago (1997) considers Bateson's perspective of knowledge of the sacred to present a vision of family secrets, exploring why they arouse such intensely polarised feelings in therapists. He suggests adopting a more morally neutral framework where therapists see the desirability of keeping secrets and question the assumption that secret knowledge must always be shared across generational boundaries in a family.…”

Section: Where Angels Fear To Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sacred in Psychotherapeutic Practice: Ethical Reflections from Bateson and Bateson

Díaz

Salamanca

Vial

2022

ANZ J of Family Therapy

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In the last stage of his life, Gregory Bateson worked on a book that eventually became two: Mind and Nature (1979) and Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (1988). The latter was completed by his daughter Margaret Bateson Mead, after the death of her father in 1980. In Mind and Nature, Bateson compares evolution with the nature of the mental process, concluding that there are patterns that connect thoughts, ideas, and the evolutionary process: they are systems made up of interacting parts that are organized based on relations of similarities or differences. This organization forms a unit (or mind) that has the capacity of responding to information in selfcorrecting ways. Later, in Angels Fear, he wonders about the way in which systems take care of that integrity, and why that is so important. Bateson & Bateson point out that on certain occasions communication is undesirable because it alters the nature of ideas and thus of history, threatening the integrity of the unit. On many occasions what we have learned in our own history and which is manifested in our responses, voices, rites, sacraments, routines and creative acts constitute sacred areas for our lives and therefore we learn not to touch, and keep them in the unsaid. This article reflects on how this understanding of the sacred can have important implications for psychotherapy. These ideas are illustrated with two psychotherapy stories.

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Section: Where Angels Fear To Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sacred in Psychotherapeutic Practice: Ethical Reflections from Bateson and Bateson

Díaz

Salamanca

Vial

2022

ANZ J of Family Therapy

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“…Again, there are always exceptional individuals in their early thirties, even in their mid twenties, who belie this general pattern -but they are exceptions. Family of origin training will have its greatest impact if the trainee has reached the age where the circle has started to curve back: otherwise it may fall into the category of premature knowledge, even 'forbidden' knowledge (Crago, 1997).…”

Section: Hugh Cragomentioning

confidence: 99%

Family of Origin Work in Training: Essential or Dangerous?

Mason

Gibney²,

Crago³

2002

ANZ J of Family Therapy

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In relation to family of origin work in the training of family therapist, the authors discuss the appropriate age of trainees, the interface between personal and academic segments of the course, and potential risks and benefits involved. Two of the authors, Barry Mason and Paul Gibney, participated in a panel discussion on this topic at the Inaugural Pan Pacific Family Therapy Congress in Melbourne, 2001.

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Self-Censorship in the Family: The Double-Edged Sword of Family Secrets

Roded

Raviv

2017

Peace Psychology Book Series

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The ‘Not to be Opened’ Letter: Family Secrets, Hidden Knowledge and Violate Prohibitions

Abstract: This paper presents a view of family secrets that is informed by their

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The Sacred in Psychotherapeutic Practice: Ethical Reflections from Bateson and Bateson

The Sacred in Psychotherapeutic Practice: Ethical Reflections from Bateson and Bateson

Family of Origin Work in Training: Essential or Dangerous?

Self-Censorship in the Family: The Double-Edged Sword of Family Secrets

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