Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 1989, Vol. 15, No. 2, 109-110
VIRGINIA SATIR: IN MEMORIAM* Bunny S. Duhl Boston Family Institute We are pausing a t the end of this plenary entitled, “The Play’s the Thing,” to remember, acknowledge and honor Virginia Satir, one person who celebrated play and the creative use of self more than anyone else I know. For those of you who don’t know, Virginia died peacefully September loth, of pancreatic and liver cancer, discovered and diagnosed in July of this year. I refer you to John Banmen’s excellent recent article in the AAMFT Family Therapy News (Septemberioctober, 1988), in your folder, to learn more about her life. Virginia is often called a pioneer, or the Columbus of family therapy. She was the first woman pioneer in family therapy, and an important role model for many women who followed. She started seeing families of schizophrenicsand other hospitalized patients in 1950. Her landmark book, Conjoint Family Therapy, still a classic, published in 1964, helped launch this field. The book summarized her learnings about family systems in the years she worked with Jules Riskin and Don Jackson as Director of Training at MRI, and meetings with Gregory Bateson. Lynn Hoffman, one of today’s presenters, helped Virginia organize that work. Virginia went on to write several more books-the most famous of which perhaps is Peoplemaking, written for the layman. Some have accused Virginia of “deserting the field” of family therapy; I would reframe that. The field Virginia helped create could not contain her. Her earliest awarenesses informed her that low self-esteem was a key central issue in the mental health/ mental illness continuum. She then took it upon herself to explore every avenue of human endeavor-actions, dreams, expectations, thoughts, feelings, rules, yearnings, myths, beliefs, wishes-all that contributed to treating or detracting from high selfesteem. She explored with all forms of human communication. She expanded her work with families to many other levels of system. Virginia worked with the governments of Manitoba and California, and the judicial system in the State of Virginia. She created and worked with the internal “parts party“ of each person. She accidently “invented” multiple family therapy by mistakenly scheduling several families a t the same time, and she consciously developed family theater and family reconstruction. Through her books and workshops, she took her work directly to the public, by-passing therapists, the middlemen. And through all her work all over the world, she envisioned and worked for world peace. Virginia is probably the best known proponent of family health and family process and family therapy in the world. Virginia was a visionary, curious and fearless. She dared to cross emotional barbedwire fences and step into the landmined terrain of fixed beliefs. Once there, she tilled the emotional soil to unearth a “yes” to life. She saw the jewel in every person and the bondage each was held in by their rules for survival. Like a stand-up comic, she used *This memorial talk was originally presented at the 46th Annual Conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, New Orleans, October 27, 1988. It appears here with only slight modifications.-Ed. Bunny S. Duhl, EdD, is Director of Training, Boston Family Institute of Maine, Portland, ME, and in private practice a t 55 Williston Rd., Brookline, MA 02146.
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humor and metaphor to get to the heart of our unchallenged beliefs and our fear-based interactions. She possessed the freedom to touch, role play, sculpt, use ropes, hugs or whatever she needed to show people how they experienced in their bodies the constraints of their rules and the traps of their lives. Virginia knew the power of questions . . . she always challenged: Where did you learn that? Who told you that? When did you make that decision? and she countered withYou weren’t born that way. You have a choice. She spoke of growth, change, healing-never of “cure.” And she never lost the individual in the larger systems they formed. Demolishing negative myths was always conducted by Virginia with true compassion for the persons carrying the myth. Through her theory-in-action, Virginia brought people into consciousness and out of their family trances. She flung open windows and doors to new possibilities by tapping and releasing new resources within. Virginia gave herself totally to each situation, using every resource she possessed. She put information, perspective and self-esteem into each person’s hands, and showed them the work they had to do. Virginia offered people a choice, a challenge and a path. I will miss her. Her work and teachings will continue a t the summer Training Institutes a t Crested Butte, Colorado, through people she trained in the Avanta Network.’ NOTE ‘Those who wish to learn more about the training programs offered by the Avanta Network should write to: 139 Forest Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301.
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