44

In our psychotherapeutic practice, we observe how much our way of being and our representations influence our patients, whether we want it or not. This is a simple second cybernetics observation, but it remains a little bit puzzling for those who see the therapy as a space of freedom and choice for the patients. What should be done with those representations? Clarify them for oneself, certainly, and propose them to the patients, but how and when? If the therapeutic space challenges two worlds curious about one another—the therapist’s and the patient’s, the couple’s, or the family’s—the representations of both should confront each other in order to become more flexible and allow everyone to evolve. I shall try to illustrate this in various domains of my psychotherapeutic practice.