PAEDIATRICIANS AND THE SYSTEMIC APPROACH

Key words: System theory, Family doctor, Paediatrics, Mental health

Traditional medicine, as well as psychology and psychoanalysis, is based on linear explanatory models: a specific cause produces a specific effect. These simplified models may be helpful to understand basic biological processes, but are insufficient to explain most phenomena. This is even more true for human relationships and for their disorders, since each human being is part of complex systemic interactions, where the family represents the elementary system and society the macrosystem. The article describes the omeostatic rules that regulate these systems and the mechanisms that may lead to their disruption and consequently to a variety of psychosomatic symptoms and to mental illness. Family doctors, and particularly paediatricians, should be familiar with these concepts.