Constructivist · 1972
Autopoiesis and Enactivism
We do not grasp a world: we enact it in relation to the environment.
The theory of autopoiesis, developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, proposes that living systems are autopoietic systems: closed networks of component production that regenerate themselves and maintain their organisation through an internal dynamic structurally coupled to the environment. From this perspective, knowledge is not the representation of an objective external reality but an enactive process emerging from the interaction between organism and medium. The observer is part of the system they describe, so that every explanation is a construction dependent on the relational domain in which it arises. This proposal grounds radical constructivism and the turn towards relational, systemic and post-positivist models in psychotherapy, decisively influencing later clinical developments in constructivism, social constructionism and narrative therapy.
Theory of change
Change occurs when the human system reorganises its emotional, bodily, narrative and relational couplings, allowing more viable ways of living, meaning-making and coordinating with others to emerge.
Core ideas
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Living systems are autopoietic
A living system is a closed network of component production whose components are continuously regenerated and which maintains its organisation through its own internal dynamic. The identity of the system does not depend on specific material elements, but on the relational organisation that produces and maintains them. (Maturana & Varela, 1972).
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Knowing is an enactive, not a representational, act
Knowledge does not consist in representing an independent external reality, but in bringing forth a world through action and interaction. Organism and environment co-determine one another in the process of structural coupling, and what we call reality emerges from that history of interactions. (Maturana & Varela, 1984; Varela, Thompson & Rosch, 1991).
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The observer is part of the domain they describe
Every explanation is produced by an observer within a specific relational domain. There is no privileged external position from which to describe reality objectively; every description is a construction dependent on the system that produces it. (Maturana & Varela, 1984).
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Truth is operational coherence
The validity of an explanation is not defined by its correspondence with an independent reality, but by its coherence within a consensual domain of interactions. Objectivity is always objectivity in parentheses: a coordination of shared actions, not access to the absolute. (Maturana, 1988; Maturana & Varela, 1984).
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The self is an emergent organisational process
Personal identity is not a substantial entity, but a dynamic configuration maintained by the organisation of the system in interaction with its environment. The self is conserved as long as the organisation that produces it is conserved, and is transformed when the patterns of structural coupling change. (Maturana & Varela, 1972; Varela et al., 1991).
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Change involves structural reorganisation
Autopoietic systems cannot be instructed from outside, only perturbed. Change occurs when a perturbation triggers an internal reorganisation coherent with the structure of the system. In therapy, this implies that transformation is not imposed but emerges from the internal dynamic of the person in conversational interaction. (Maturana & Varela, 1984).
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Language creates consensual domains of reality
Language does not transmit objective information; it coordinates behaviour within a consensual domain. Through conversation, shared worlds are generated that structure identity, emotion and action. Psychotherapy operates precisely in this conversational domain. (Maturana, 1988; Maturana & Varela, 1984).
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Emotion grounds rationality
All rationality takes place within an emotional domain that makes it possible. Cognitive and argumentative distinctions emerge from prior emotional dispositions that configure the relational space. Therapeutic change requires modifying emotional domains, not only narrative ones. (Maturana, 1988).
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Ethics arises from recognising the other as a legitimate other
In the human domain, coexistence and relational transformation depend on mutual recognition as legitimate others in living together. Therapeutic practice is grounded in this relational ethics, in which change is produced within a space of acceptance and co-construction. (Maturana, 1991).
Influences
- Systemic biology
- Second-order cybernetics
- Constructivist epistemology
- Phenomenology
- Systems theory
Key references
- Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1972). De máquinas y seres vivos.
- Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1984). El árbol del conocimiento.
- Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind.