Creativity, pathology, and family structure: a cybernetic metaphor

This paper describes a cybernetic metaphor as a novel paradigm for family theory, linking aspects of cybernetic epistemology as described by Bateson (1) with the tropes, major figures of speech, as defined by the linguist Jakobson (25). Jakobson describes two operations characteristics of all human discourse at many levels of organization and abstraction: the metaphoric, linking by similarity; and the metonymic, linking by contiguity. A cybernetic metaphor suggest a view of individuals as adaptive systems able to transform novelty into expectations (49) in one of two ways and thereby maintain a relationship with their context. Those who encounter contexts characterized by "dissonances" in structure and basic premises would adopt the metaphoric mode by finding similarities in apparent differences and thus learn to link separate domains. Those learning to orient themselves in a context of consistent basic premises and structure would adopt the metonymic mode, linking by temporal or spacial contiguity within an implicit assumed whole. Clinical examples and the literature on the families of symptomatic and creative individuals will be used as illustrations of this process of learning communicative modes.