Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Top Ten, give or take

Top Six Reasons for my Love/Hate Relationship with Family Dynamics Class:
(Make that five reasons... it's almost time for Sex & the City...)

5. it's a bit too intense to put a name to every quasi-dysfunctional thing that you, your family, and your friends do.

4. in a word (that I can't remember the meaning of): "schismogenesis."

3. referring to families using"the cybernetic metaphor."

2. it always makes me cry, but when I do I'm surround by 53 other wannabe therapists who, for the most part, know how to respond appropriately.

1. they tell us not to go home and practice therapy on our friends, since we have no technique yet, but it's kind of like giving a kid a bb gun and hoping that telling him "this might hurt someone" will stop him from testing it on his sister (no, Kevin, I won't let that one go. It's only been 17 years). It's just so darn shiny and new, I have to pull the trigger.

2 comments:

Swiftyjess said...

I think they don't want you to practice your therapy skillz on friends yet because then you'd become used to helping someone the wrong way. (Which you already knew...) and also: cybernetic metaphor?

JulieBee said...

"cybernetics: the study of self-governing, information-processing systems." A family takes input from its environment, converts it to information, and self-regulates behaviors, like a thermostat....