Introduction
Complementarity is the concordance of behaviors and roles between family members.
Theoretical Context
The concept is central in structural family therapy, underlying both the structural therapist’s challenge to the family’s definition of the problem, and her or his optimistic stance regarding the possibilities of change.
Description
Complementarity denotes the fit among the behaviors and roles of individual members or subsystems of a family. Although the notion bears some resemblance to that of circular causality, there is an important difference between the two. Circular causality designates a sequential pattern of behaviors, represented with a series of arrows (girl clings ➔ mother rejects ➔ girl clings), while complementarity looks at the same behaviors as pieces of a puzzle: the girl’s clinginess and the mother’s rejection are “shapes” that fiteach other. The difference is not trivial; it accounts for the structural therapist’s preference for addressing spatial...
References
Laozi, & Mitchell, S. (1988). Tao te ching: A new English version (p. 2). New York: Harper & Row.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, H. C. (1981). Family therapy techniques. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Colapinto, J., Lee, W.Y. (2018). Complementarity in Structural Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_253-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_253-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences