Gossips in front of the family

We have asked the second/third generation of systemic thinkers and family therapists to honor the great mothers/fathers we all had, by sharing stories and anecdotes about them (from a few lines to one page maximum).  We are including these contributions in this special pages in order: 1. honor our founders and our systemic past; 2. to collect and protect memories of them, 3. “cultivate” our roots, 4. to  remember very precious stories that otherwise would get lost; 5. to create an emotional background for forthcoming students. We think these memories can also give the flavor of the ’70 and ’80 in our field and its ongoing development.

We are assembling personal and professional stories that involve the narrator personally and other stories our masters used to tell.

We are using this particular title for the project based on a quote by Mara Selvini Palazzoli: according to her, gossips were happening all the time in therapy, in front of the other members. Also, Heinz von Foerster used to utilize a relevant phrase in his reference to “People who invented me”.

We would like this project to become a self-organizing autopoietic system: each person contacted can choose who to narrate about and can propose other testimonies. We will see what comes out.

Looking forward to many memories, thank you for sharing

Umberta Telfener  and  Kyriaki Polychroni

Roma/Athens, May 2023