Author E. Karam

Excerpt: Second-order cybernetics (also known as the Cybernetics of Cybernetics and the New Cybernetics) is a philosophy of communication and growth that acknowledges the recursive nature of relationships and interpersonal influence (Atkinson and Heath 1990). Second-order cybernetics holds that those who observe systems, such as family therapists, cannot be separated from the systems with which they observe and are thus constantly helping to shape reality for all members.