A note on Spinoza's contribution to systemic therapy.

Writing 300 years ago the philosopher Spinoza anticipated some of the fundamental principles of systemic therapy, notably a respect for the remorseless logic of natural systems and the value of positive connotation. In the debate about the ethics of paradoxical methods, he offers a logical, and humble, defense. Spinoza wanted to show that the universe is necessarily and logically the way it is and that all parts of it, including ourselves, are linked together in support of this necessity. He put his profoundly original ideas down in a rather impersonal and indigestible form, with propositions and proofs, like a mathematical treatise. That is why he is not more widely read and known, since the ideas themselves, particularly on freedom, are more relevant to life and work than those found in most formal philosophical systems. For Spinoza, being "free" is not so much the liberty to do what one likes regardless of nature, but is rather the consequence of accepting one's necessary place in it. "Those who believe that they ... act in any way from the free decision of their minds do but dream with their eyes open" (2, p. 135). That was a shocking thing to say because it opposed the prevailing view of man as a superior being with a rational mind that gives him power over himself and other beings. Spinoza's dismissal of the Cartesian view that the mind has absolute power over its actions is uncharacteristically scornful. Descartes had proposed that the pineal gland in the centre of the brain connects the mind and the body, effectively translating will into action.