The Systemic Framework -- Two Different Worldviews -- The Framework of Individual Psychology -- The Framework of Systemic Family Therapy -- Basic Concepts of Systems Theory and Cybernetics -- Family Therapy or Relationship Therapy? -- The Historical Perspective -- Planting the Seeds: The 1940s -- Cybernetics -- Development of Interdisciplinary Approaches -- Gregory Bateson -- Putting Down Roots: The 1950s -- Bateson (Continued) -- The Double-Bind Hypothesis -- Nathan Ackerman -- Murray Bowen -- Carl Whitaker -- Theodore Lidz -- Lyman Wynne -- Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy -- John Elderkin Bell -- Christian F. Midelfort -- Overview of the 1950s -- The Plant Begins to Bud: The 1960s -- Paradigm Shift -- MRI -- Salvador Minuchin -- Other Developments -- Blossom Time: The 1970s -- Psychodynamic Approaches -- Natural Systems Theory -- Experiential Approaches -- Structural Approaches -- Strategic Approaches -- Communication Approaches -- Behavioral Approaches -- Gregory Bateson -- Connecting and Integrating: The 1980s -- Other Voices -- The Limits of History -- Controversy, Conflict, and Beyond: The 1990s -- The Feminist Critique -- Family Therapy and Family Medicine -- Integration and Metaframeworks -- Managed Care -- The Twenty-First Century: Continuing Concerns and Emerging Trends -- The Paradigmatic Shift of Systems Theory -- A Cybernetic Epistemology -- Recursion -- Morphostasis/Morphogenesis -- Rules and Boundaries -- Openness and Closedness -- Entropy/Negentropy -- Equifinality/Equipotentiality.