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In Defence of Eclecticism

Principal Psychologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, London

In attempting to understand the aetiology and progress of childhood illness, where the presentation is a mixture of physical and emotional distress, an overarching systemic approach is required, combining a broad range of psychological and somatic factors in a comprehensive formulation. The clinician needs to shuttle between the comprehensive picture and the partial or linear views which constitute it. Treatment has to start with work on several different arcs of the circular chain of causality. Once some change is triggered, the task is to make sense of what is happening in the wider system if that change is to be accommodated and maintained. Any linear interventions may be built into the therapeutic conversation in which new meanings and behaviours are established. The eclectic clinician will introduce interventions from various schools of thought. The possible effectiveness of these manoeuvres, in different combinations, their timing and their acceptability, all need careful consideration.

Key Words: childhood illness • eclecticism • psychosomatic • systems thinking

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