THE PROBLEM OF STRATEGY WITHIN THE SYSTEMIC THERAPIES

Strategic principles, because they imply therapist power and influence, have become an object of debate within the systemic therapy movement. This article examines a variety of positions taken in that debate, focusing particularly on those expressed by the other members of the 1990 AAMFT panel "Twists and Turns in Strategic Therapy," namely, Harold Goolishian, Insoo Berg, and Barry Duncan. By considering strategic therapy in terms of the distinction between therapeutic process and content and the distinction between realist and antirealist epistemologies, it is argued that there is more convergence among the proponents of those positions than their writings might have us believe.