Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-018-9387-x

ORIGINAL PAPER

Considerations in Francisco Varela for Psychotherapy of Sense

Claudio Zamorano1 · Pilar Cuevas2 · Liliana Mera2

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
Under the influence of dialogic and narrative models, relational systemic psychotherapy has shifted its attention towards
understanding the relational self, its agency and off-centered nature. In order to substantiate its new clinical positions, it has
reached for other disciplines such as philosophy and literature. Francisco Varela’s approach regarding the ontological aporia
between the individual and the relationship may provide conceptual foundations to propose a clinical understanding where
identity and sense play a key role. By considering intentionality as the engine of everything that’s living, Varela generates a
difference between the extensive environment in which individuals unfold, and the singular investiture of significance through
which people seek relationships to recognize their identity. A model for a relational psychotherapy of sense is proposed,
based in Francisco Varela’s conceptual influences.

Keywords Intentionality · Sense · Relation · Identity · Siege

Introduction Bertrando and Toffanetti (2004), with these new influences

Since the epistemological turn of the 1980s, systemic psy-
chotherapy shifted from the description of the observed
systems to the centrality of the observer (Boscolo and Ber-
trando 1998), a movement that installed the concept of lan-
guage in the center of clinical practice. In this context, it’s
interesting to consider the conceptual developments of the
Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Var-
ela, expressed on what they called Biology of Cognition
(Maturana and Varela 1984), since they provided a frame of
reference for many theorists and therapists within the field
of systemic psychotherapy (Méndez et al. 1988; Cecchin
1987; Goolishian and Winderman 1989; Miran-Khan 2001).
Impulsed by the focus on the observer and the leading
role of language as a generator of realities, systemic psycho-
therapy found other influences to enrich its displacement:
Kenneth Gergen’s social constructionism (Anderson and
Goolishian 1996) and post-structuralist concepts developed
by Michel Foucault (White and Epston 1993). According to
Claudio Zamorano
claudio.zamorano@uchile.cl
1
Department of Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago,
Chile
2
Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
systemic practice experienced a narrative twist.
However, this change of perspective has been challeng-
ing, since the individual suddenly becomes a crucial point—
especially in terms of the relationship he establishes with his
personal story and his lived experience. Systemic therapists
have taken on the challenge of searching and reviewing other
authors to provide concepts that will support the creation of
a comprehensive framework for the dilemma of the rela-
tional self, and in this journey they have turned towards phi-
losophy: they started quoting Jacques Derridá (Carey et al.
2009), Gilles Deleuze (Winslade 2009), Mikhail Bakhtin
(Rober 2005; Seikkula et  al. 2012) and Alain Badiou
(Pakman 2014) among others.
The work of Francisco Varela finds common ground with
contemporary systemic psychotherapy through the concepts
of autonomy, identity, emergent self, intentionality and
enactment. Although his work with Maturana is well known
in the systemic field, his immense work without his mentor
has not been sufficiently explored in the psychotherapeutic
community.
In this context, this article aims to contribute to approach
the ideas of Francisco Varela from a systemic relational
stance, as a way of supporting the movements and transfor-
mations in this clinical field.

13
Vol.:(0123456789)

Autonomy, Identity and Sense
For Varela, the principle of autonomy which is a distinctive
feature of autopoiesis is key to understand the interpretative
capacity of living beings and their co-dependent connection
with their environment. The concept of autopoiesis allows
us to understand the continuous generation of the world not
through heteronomous processes, but through an autono-
mous dynamic that is at the same time linked to the environ-
ment in which this whole existential process takes place.
However, the development of this autonomous dynamic
does not mean that a way of life has independence from the
world where it occurs. According to Varela (2000) auton-
omy must be considered in two dimensions: one, linked to
the mechanism that allows the maintenance of the entity
in question, and another one regarding the way it relates
to the world.
This emerging entity actively couples with the environ-
ment into which it literally throws itself. Since the coher-
ence between them is continuously being confirmed, this
interaction always occurs in a way that is functional to
whatever the autonomous process requires to go on.
Identity, therefore, should not be understood as a state
that is achieved once and for all, but rather as a continu-
ous existential process of keep-on-being; it is more about
global coherences providing occasion for an encounter
with the environment and at the same time needing that
interaction to ensure its uniqueness.
In this regard, as living beings are self-affirming, they
carry with them the possibility of ceasing to be at any
given time. This idea is relevant because it requires iden-
tity to be considered under the permanent threat of disinte-
gration (i.e. death). Therefore every cognitive, behavioral
or meaning expression that we ascribe to a living being
has an existential value. For Varela (2000) it is crucial to
assume that living beings define what is of interest to them
and what concerns them in order to continue existing as an
effect of their autonomous process.
As a consequence, the encounter of living beings
with the relational space is never neutral, for we always
add significance; this added significance is what Varela
(2000) calls surplus of meaning or sense. In this regard,
Thompson (2004) proposes that life is not just a cognitive
process, but also an emotional process of sense-making,
giving significance and value to the existence. As a result,
human beings are always oriented by purpose, not consid-
ered as an expression of will or any rational aspect, but as
how we orient our movements in order to meet what we
need to maintain our identity. We are intentional beings,
always seeking a sense that has been threatened, and which
presence is needed to recognize ourselves in the middle of
an unstable environment.
13
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
Relational Psychotherapy of the Sense
Varela’s principle of autonomy of life generates a self-
interested movement that directs us to find what concerns
us, but due to the uninterrupted flow of experience and
the ever-changing nature of the environment in which we
unfold, such correspondence is always temporary. Our
identity can’t be understood as the consolidation of a set-
tled and satisfied self, but rather as an emergent self not
substantial nor definitive, requiring the coupling with the
environment to obtain a temporary self-recognition.
Due to the recursive and reflective quality of language,
we generate an imaginary dimension (Varela 2000) with
multiple intertwines, whereby the structure of the sense
brought into play in any given situation might be crossed
by different registers. In other words, our selective concern
expresses itself in diverse areas of our lives and takes its
place in different stories.
The approach developed by Varela is an invitation to con-
sider our imaginary dimension as an ongoing process, as a
dynamic that is never fully consolidated; leaving its traces as
a testimony of a story during which some paths have become
viable, and thus allowing the survival of the learnings that
constitute our existential process. Therefore, considering the
off-centered nature of our emergent self implies attending
to the areas in which its emergent process develops itself.
These dimensions are located in two registers:
1. The establishment of the historical drift that made us
possible: our lived history
2. The current conditions of its manifestation: the situ-
ationality in which sense-making seeks its recognition.
Graphically represented, the following clinical model
is proposed: (see Fig. 1).
Regarding the Lived History
The first obstacle that arises when trying to bring life history
out is the fact that it cannot be objectively “represented”, for
the act of remembering is not unprejudiced nor unemotional.
In this regard, Varela (2000) points out that every time we
try to trace the origins of an idea we stumble across multiple
details and reciprocal correlations that make it impossible
to claim with certainty: “That is exactly when this idea was
born, and this is how it was developed” (p. 383).
The review of our lived history should not resemble
an anamnesis, where a temporal order is laid out; on the
contrary, a remembering way of thinking is required in
order to understand how a way of interpreting and being
affected by relevant issues has been formed and deployed.
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
Fig. 1 Clinical model psychotherapy of the sense
According to Varela et al. (1993), such way of think-
ing consists in paying attention to the way memories have
been constructed, attending to both the embodied context in
which remembering has become relevant and the interpreta-
tive tracing of the situational conditions that have enabled a
singular relation with history. These situational conditions
“show us that it has been possible for us to be who we are
and to behave the way we have behaved. It shows us that our
experience has been viable” (Varela 2000, p. 384).
Therefore, to understand the viable way to enact a world
we must consider and remember the lived history by attend-
ing to two registers: what has been learned (see a. in Fig. 1)/
what was left unlearned (see b. in Fig. 1).
Significant relationships and stories must be traced in
order to unveil the learning that has been developed. In this
regard, according to Weber (2001) the research of significant
relationships allows to bring forward the mutual creation of
the world and the subject, providing the key to understand-
ing why individuals fit so remarkably well in their context. A
journey through personal history allows us to understand the
qualities of situated intelligences; i.e. the adaptive ways peo-
ple have developed to enter shared worlds of significance.
In this respect, Varela suggests that reality is not made at
people’s whim: it is learned in contexts that always involve
others. The essential role of otherness in the configuration
of an off-centered identity demands that we explore who
has been part of the learning process, who has threatened
or taken care of that story, in whom have we learned to see
ourselves so as to desire what we desire. In the course of
such explorations, significant persons and moments which
constitute a vital part of our possible world are revealed and
become present in images or voices within the imaginary
dimension.
Therefore, following Bateson and Bateson (1994), the
relationships and stories that have allowed us to secure a
sense of meaning belong into a sacred dimension of our
lives, and we learn that they should not be touched. Accord-
ing to Varela (2000), the sacred nature of integrity is a con-
sequence of the circular, self-reflective process in which
every systemic entity bases itself.
We don’t touch our world of sense because we cannot
see beyond it. Moreover, if we consider that the world we
experience through our embodiment has been formed in a
plot of meaningful relationships, then “breaking our blind-
ness” means to somehow come out of the relational matrix,
generating a personal change and interpellating others.
In this regard, psychotherapy should consider an ethic of
the sacred, because our viable history is not only worthy of
being told but also provides and cares for many other peo-
ple and moments that are part of our significance domains.
What we have called the sacred in people’s lives expresses
itself in embodied actions within their evolutionary context
in the social co-drift that have made them possible. From
Varela’s point of view, skills and learnings should be placed
in our lived histories not only as mere descriptions, but also
as lived bodily inscriptions. Embodiment is a core aspect of
experience, since it expresses the sensual and sensitive way
of being in the world; during their autobiographical journey,
it is important then to invite people to consider their body
as the radical, material expression of such adventure. Sup-
porting this concept, Varela and Depraz (2000) point out
that subjective fluctuation involves full bodily transforma-
tions; therefore the affective force can manifest itself in a
lived body. Hence, the body should not be considered as a
framework through which someone recounts his life, but as
the matrix itself, a home that contains and shapes the feeling.
On the other hand, the excluded -those relationships or
stories that didn’t have the privilege of being lived- must
be addressed; through these marginalized relationships it
is possible to hypothesize about all the learning that had no
opportunity to express itself. In this regard, the exploration
of the lived history can only be brought out to our memory
under the form of a story: a script that prioritizes, censor-
ship and underlines, for the significant stories that allow the
survival of our domains of sense have excluded many other
possible stories, which have enabled the continuity of our
personal self by remaining marginalized.
The knowledge that didn’t have the chance to develop
itself because of the “triumph” of the personal self consti-
tutes underprivileged or non-existent relational, narrative
and affective areas which Derridá (1989) defined as belong-
ing to the domain of the unsaid. Likewise, when describing
the off-centered nature of the self, Varela et al. (1993) note
that as a result of our viable history we develop a “deeply
rooted emotional response that conditions all of our behav-
iors and models all the situations we experience” (p. 105);
however, our experiential dimension is formed by a con-
tinuous negotiation and tension between many possible
sensations, that in the end will line up around a privileged
13

experience. The result of this process is an edition condi-
tioned by a history, a coexistence of multiple parallel expe-
riences which will remain available even if they never have
the chance to express themselves.
Although excluded, marginalized stories are present—
by contrast—in their absence and they outline of a highly
relevant therapeutic framework, since even though our per-
sonal self has become an expert in certain learnings, and
thus in privileged ways of sense-making, simultaneously
it has become “clumsy” in other dimensions of situated
intelligence. These dimensions of “clumsiness” invite us
to imagine and listen to multiple relational, narrative and
emotional stories against which our personal self has been
established, to look for unexplored worlds or blocked routes.
Paying attention to these territories of the unsaid allows the
therapist to understand relationships and stories which peo-
ple have chosen to quit or even to avoid entirely, not only
because they lack some pragmatic “know-how”, but also
because existentially it was important to favor other stories
in the co-drift of their social coupling.
Regarding Situationality
In this matter, people’s daily life must be attended in terms
of the situationality of the experiences constituting deci-
sive moments in the process of guaranteeing identity. Such
situationality allows the uncovering of the scale of values
(Weber and Varela 2002) that is constantly being processed
in our contextual/existential dynamic so we can maintain a
continuous identity and recognize ourselves.
According to Varela (1992), humans are not passive
beings, just waiting to be stimulated by the environment and
then reacting according to our structure; we are rather active
agents in the world, thrown to the next given moment thanks
to the autonomy principle that governs us. He speaks of a
Biology of Intentionality, an expression of the self-reflective
and autonomous process of all living beings.
Therefore, since we are always thrown, we can say that
it is therapeutically important to attend to the intentional-
ity of the movement, which alludes to what’s important for
the integrity of people’s lives. As previously stated, identity
must be considered as an offered possibility, a flow rather
than a consolidated state; paying attention to the situational-
ity of the experience allows to bring forward aspects of con-
cern that constitute dimensions of sense for an individual.
This is an ever ongoing process; the concern for our continu-
ity creates a “movement that consistently goes beyond the
given state of affairs” (Jonas 1968, p. 243).
Metaphorically, we could state that our emergent self is a
capture of an unceasing flow of experience: as with a photo-
graph, we capture the moment and narrate it for registration.
However, the ever ongoing nature of the flow of experience
propels us to the next moment, the next shot, the sequence
13
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
that builds up the ordering of our personal self. Neverthe-
less, it is important to note that in the act of taking a picture
we are not only recording, but also trapping what’s captured
in the shot.
Varela (2000) points out that since this movement is
guided by affection, the mind is fundamentally something
that arises from the affective tonality, which is embedded in
the body. Movement, then, is led by affection and oriented
by the need for recognition of the dimensions of sense that
shape our personal self. Hence, situationality of everyday
experience represents a permanent condition for the continu-
ity of sense under the threat of its loss.
In this regard, sense is sought because it can’t be kept;
the roots of daily concealment or loss of sense can be under-
stood by the same kinetic directionality of the experience.
The movement of our affected-body pushes us into the con-
text looking for situations and relationships that allow the
temporary satisfaction of our affection. Therapeutic listen-
ing must be sensitive to the intentionality of sense; that is,
we must hypothesize over which domain of significance is
sense being processed within the situationality of everyday
experience.
In this respect, Varela et al. (1993) point out that embod-
ied actions will always orient themselves towards an absent
content, under the guide of the intentionality of sense.
Thus, the continuous flow of experience mobilized by the
“constant genesis of meaning” (Varela 2000, p. 104) propels
the individual towards the next encounter, guided by the
never fully satisfied intentionality. Although attending to the
intentionality of sense (see c. in Fig. 1). means unclosing the
“purposes” that guide us, this directionality must always be
put in relation to the permanent possibility of its loss. Thus,
it is crucial to think about the threatening possibility of the
non-sense in the situational process in which the off-centered
self is updated affectively and linguistically, to understand
the persistence of the selective orientation of people in the
world.
In this aspect, our imaginary dimension also re-creates
and imagines the ghost of the fall of the sense, causing us to
be mobilized within the borders that guarantee our being-
in-the-world, trying to keep away anything that threatens us.
However, given the relentless nature of the flow of experi-
ence and the fluctuating conditions of the environment in
which we find ourselves, we see our significance threatened
on a daily basis. At this point—as Derridá (1989) pointed
out—people struggle to keep going under the permanent
siege of the difference, the interruption of the significance
that defines them. Sense intentionality implies a directional-
ity of movement through the siege of non-sense (see d. in
Fig. 1). In clinical terms, paying attention to how people
solve their everyday impasses is a primary source for under-
standing the singularity that is tested in their lived present.
Thus, therapeutic practice does not need to go and search
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
for great experiences or epic milestones. Instead, it must
rescue the small and concrete experiences in people’s lives
and thereby pay sensitive attention to the existential flow of
sense processing.
It is important to emphasize that focusing on the situ-
ationality of lived experience means to distinguish the
conditions of otherness that are required for the enactment
of sense-making. In this regard, it is crucial to pay close
attention to the dimensions of context bonding that pro-
vide the conditions for a self-interested integrity dynamic.
Therefore, we must attend to the bonds and relationships
that help people maintain that process, preventing them
from generating differences in the way they appreciate
things and thus generating the conditions for a “conveni-
ent” self-reflectiveness. Turning the argument around, many
“others” need our unchanging presence to guarantee their
own way of significance, with which the issue of integrity or
transformation acquires an ethical status. This co-dependent
dynamic, understandable due to the characteristics of social
coupling, generates a wonderful synchronicity in which our
ways of finding the world meet with people who are willing
to receive us.
As previously stated, considering the situationality of
experience implies paying attention to the ways in which
people operate in the immediacy of a given situation. This
modus operandi is expressed in what Varela (1996) called
the embodiment of the microworlds through which people
enact their know-how. Microworlds provide historically
established dispositions towards action that shape the ways
in which people present themselves and resolve the imme-
diacy of the concrete experience.
Microworlds can be understood as the moments when
sense is put in check and it expresses itself as a response,
coming out ahead of those moments with the mastery
granted by its historic know-how, demonstrating its adaptive
coping strategies. In every concrete and lived microworld,
many stories are intertwined; many persons and voices par-
ticipate in the processing of the contingency.
A Clinical Vignette
Pedro, consulting with (Author A), 24 years old, clear com-
plexion, 5.9 feet, blonde hair, blue eyes. He is wearing a
sport outfit and sneakers. He smiles as he greets me with a
strong handshake.
Pedro is consulting because he feels a “mental mess”
that doesn’t let him set priorities in his life. He says he’s
aware he’s been smoking too much marijuana and that he
must lower his consumption. He has already managed to
control his drinking issues after making a “pact” with his
mother: she would quit smoking cigarettes and in turn he
would quit drinking. About the “mental mess”, he says that
all of the sudden he finds himself thinking deep questions
he can’t share with his friends, whom he has begun to find
shallow and boring.
Therapist’s Reflection
With this starting point, it can be hypothesized that the
experience of a “mental mess” is the expression of a
moment of discontinuity of sense: why is this perceived
lack of organization so intolerable for him? What kind
of siege can it give rise to? On the other hand, the pact
with the mother arises as a situational scenario for the
decision to quit drinking. What role does otherness play
in his decisions and commitments? Likewise, since the
“mental mess” appears in connection to deep questions,
we can wonder by contrast about the relationship he has
established with shallowness. In his path, marijuana con-
stitutes the materiality through which siege is expressed.
Finally, there is a change in the way he values his friends,
who until then had been part of his viable world. What’s
the story contained in this fracture of sense?
When I ask him about the distance he has begun to feel
between himself and his friends, Pedro tells the following
story:
Pedro (P) Two years ago I ended a one-year relation-
ship with Josefina. She was amazing, that
relationship made me question everything.
Therapist (T) What in your family history can help us
understand why this relationship made you
see the world in a different way?
P I come from a family with 6 children, very
conservative. All the men in the family are
engineers, and it was obvious that I had to
do the same.
T And what difference did Josefina introduce
in your life?
P With her my world was turned upside down.
She lived alone, was dedicated to craftsman-
ship, her parents were divorced. With her I
knew a whole new world, she questioned me
about things, and with her I started smoking
pot.
T What did your family and friends say about
that change?
P I stopped seeing my friends, and my family
told me I was in the wrong, until one day
I saw my mom crying about my change. I
realized that Josefina had brought me trou-
ble. Things went wrong and finally I broke
up with her (after that, he increased his
marijuana consumption).
13

Therapist’s Reflection
Pedro says studying engineering was “the obvious thing to
do”, and this idea doesn’t allow him to think about his own
interests: is this part of a know-how, enacting in situations
where he has to make decisions? It will be necessary to go
into the story that didn’t allow him to relate to his own moti-
vations, what was not learned in his lived history. In this
scenario, the appearance of Josefina in his life generates the
possibility of difference: he falls in love, and his senses open
up to the experience of contrast. Friendship and family rela-
tions that have guaranteed his identity continuity are chal-
lenged by this new relationship. What’s known to him and
the comfort it provides begin to be questioned; sacred areas
of his life are put under threat. The marijuana consumption
might be understood as a method to keep an embodiment
of the emotions and questions that arose in his relationship
with Josefina.
The mother appears again as a normative otherness, since
she is involved in both his decision to quit drinking and the
breakup with Josefina. The presence of this otherness is part
of his commitments aesthetics, and is possibly replicated
with different figures in his daily life as well as in his imagi-
nary dimension.
T I´ve been wondering about your decision-making
history.
P Well, I chose to be an engineer because it was easy for
me, not because I liked it.
T And what about women?
P They just come to me; I kind of just take what falls from
the sky.
Therapist’s Reflection
Pedro had his first girlfriend at the age of 19; she was a
friend of his younger sister and spent a lot of time in his
house, which allowed him to meet her and asked her out.
Then he dated a classmate with whom he had to do a project
in college. These two first relationships do not require any
movement on his part: they come to him and he accepts
them. The movement comes from the women’s interest in
him, to which he responds. This constitutes another regis-
ter of his surplus of meaning: to recognize his desire as a
response to her desire.
Pedro’s third relationship was with Josefina, whom he
meets on a cruise during a trip with his family. She was
working there as a waitress, and one evening when he was
having a drink watching the sea, she approached him; they
talked and agreed to meet that night. They had a romance on
the trip and when they arrived at destination she asked him:
“What are we? Where do we stand?” Pedro threw the ques-
tion back at her: “what do you think?” and she said: “I think
13
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
we will keep seeing each other”, whereupon he answered:
“Well, yes, obviously...”
Josefina’s question challenges him to answer from his
own interest. Such situationality demands him to go through
the siege, whereupon he reiterates previous esthetics by
responding to her interest. It is interesting to consider how
this way of dealing with the siege expresses his know-how,
as a manifestation of his situated intelligence.
P I was thinking about the issue of effort, and I thought
about trying to organize myself and do the things I want
to do. I thought about it a lot, but couldn’t get myself
together; so I went to my sister and said: “fix a schedule
for me!”- Laughs -
T Your sister?
P Yes, I had already asked her help before to develop my
sensitivity: she told me to do some volunteer work, to
pay attention to important dates and to talk about emo-
tions with other people.
Therapist’s Reflection
In this situationality he resolves the anguish by seeking his
sister’s guide. The sister plays a role that allows him identi-
tary continuity, for his viable life has been organized around
this esthetic. The intentionality of sense drives him to look
for another person’s guide.
T I’d like to know how did you learn to follow the tastes,
desires and knowledge of others...
P I was a quiet child.
T (I draw the Genogram: Dad, 64 years old, and Mom,
60 years old. Sisters are 38 and 35 years old. Brothers:
33 and 31 years old. He is 24 years old, and Susana, his
little sister, 22).
P I was born several years after my brother; we have a
big age gap. But “Sussy” was born right after me (with
irony).
T How important has Sussy been?
P She is my dad´s favorite; in fact, to get something out
of him I got used to convincing my sister to ask him the
same thing. In contrast, I was very close to my mother.
Susana did whatever she wanted, but I was very quiet
and gave no trouble. I never decided anything, I learned
by imitation and observation.
T Learning to do what others can do, what others want to
do.
P Since I was little I learned to make things as easy as
possible and to avoid problems, even with myself... I
have fooled myself with many things. It’s the same with
my relationships: when there’s a problem, I bypass it
and just keep going.
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
Therapist’s Reflection
From a very early age, his sister Susana seems to have played
the role of a mediator, advocating for his needs but at the
same time hiding them and taking away from him the pos-
sibility of manifesting his desires. On the other hand, the fear
of his father’s rejection and his closeness to his mother are
two important memories, linked to the situated responses he
uses to avoid conflict. Pedro begins to think critically about
the consequences of the way he faces relationships; he takes
the risk and goes beyond the obvious, allowing himself to
think of the unsaid.
T Is it common for you to follow what others want without
even asking yourself what do you want?
P It’s the story of my life; I’m your typical fool who’s
always driving his friends everywhere… If someone
invites me over I can’t say no, sometimes I don’t feel
like it but I end up going anyway. But I like being like
that, I like being caring.
Therapist’s Reflection
In Pedro’s words it is apparent that, even if he has begun to
think about and question his history, he also values some
aspects of the personal self he has forged through these rela-
tionships. It is important that we respect this, since it shows
that being available for others is a part of his know-how, and
that he finds some worth in this manner of seeking sense.
This ambivalence is inherent to any process of change, since
it involves other people, many memories and different ways
of looking for answers in relationships so as to guarantee
our identity.
Pedro’s psychotherapy went on for 2 years, and during
that process he dared to think from the unsaid: how the
expression of his sense intentionality made him go with the
flow of the obvious and organize his life through others,
avoiding any risk.
During his therapy he managed to mobilize himself to
look for new challenges, enacting a new know-how that
also involved growing apart from old relationships. He still
graces me with his visits, and together we look over new
sieges to his new embodied responses.
Final Commentary
Francisco Varela’s work was versatile and inspiring in many
ways; our clinical practice has been touched by his profound
ideas about experience, embodiment and sense. In this
regard, said concepts side with areas of investigation in the
field of contemporary systemic therapy: the integration of
the personal self with one’s relationships, and rescuing the
unsaid in our client’s histories.
Considering the broad development of Francisco Varela’s
investigative program (autopoiesis, enactment, immunology,
neurophenomenology, mindfulness), the present clinical pro-
posal focuses on the theoretical proposition he called “Biol-
ogy of Intentionality”. In order to further enrich our proposi-
tion, we have also considered the concept of the unsaid as
developed by Derridá (1989) and the sacred, as presented
by Bateson and Bateson (1994).
The importance of taking lived history into account
has been hereby emphasized, regarding both the adap-
tive responses that generate a viable world and the skills
that have not been able to express themselves. We have
also pointed out the need to pay attention to the concrete
situationality in which sense intentionality is expressed,
along with the answers that cause the siege of the unsaid
to withdraw.
With this study we expect to have contributed to rescue
part of Varela’s work for the use of psychotherapy, the same
way his ideas have been embraced by many other disciplines.
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.
References
Anderson, H., & Goolishian, H. (1996). El experto es el cliente: la
ignorancia como enfoque terapéutico [The expert is the client:
Ignorance as a therapeutic approach]. In S. McNamee & K. y
Gergen (Eds.), La terapia como construcción social [Therapy as
a social construction] (pp. 45–59). Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós.
Bateson, G., & Bateson, M. (1994). El temor de los ángeles [Angels
Fear]. Barcelona: Editorial Gedisa.
Bertrando, P., & Toffanetti, D. (2004). Historia de la Terapia Familiar
[History of Family Therapy]. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós.
Boscolo, L., & Bertrando, P. (1998). Terapia sistémica y lenguaje.
Del interés por la organización del sistema a la centralidad del
lenguaje [Systemic therapy and language. From interest in the
organization of the system to the centrality of language]. Sistemas
Familiares, 14(2), 53–62.
Carey, M., Walther, S., & Russell, S. (2009). The absent but implicit: A
map to support therapeutic enquiry. Family Process, 48, 319–331.
Cecchin, G. (1987). Hipothesizing, circularity, and neutrality revisited:
An invitation to curiosity. Family Process, 26, 405–413.
Derridá, J. (1989). La Escritura y la Diferencia [Writing and Differ-
ence]. Barcelona: Anthropos Editorial.
Goolishian, H., & Winderman, L. (1989). Constructivismo, autopoie-
sis y sistemas determinados por problemas [Constructivism,
autopoiesis and systems determined by problems]. Sistemas
Familiares, 5(3), 19–29.
Jonas, H. (1968). Biological foundations of individuality. International
Philosophical Quarterly, 8, 231–251.
Maturana, H., & Varela, F. (1984). El árbol del conocimiento [The tree
of knowledge]. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria.
13

Mendez, C., Coddou, F., & Maturana, H. (1988). The bringing forth
of pathology. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 9(1), 144–172.
Miran-Khan, C. (2001). Theorical beacons: Maturana’s theory in
clinical practice. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family
Therapy, 22(2), 66–72.
Pakman, M. (2014). Texturas de la imaginación. Más allá de la cien-
cia empírica y del giro lingüístico [Textures of the imagination.
Beyond empirical science and linguistic shift]. Barcelona: Edito-
rial Gedisa.
Rober, P. (2005). The therapist’s self in dialogical family therapy: Some
ideas about not-knowing and the therapist’s inner conversation.
Family Process, 44, 477–495.
Seikkula, J., Laitila, A., & Rober, P. (2012). Making sense of multi-
actor dialogues in family therapy and network meetings. Journal
of Marital and Family Therapy, 38(4), 667–687.
Thompson, E. (2004). Life and mind: From autopoiesis to neurophe-
nomenology. A tribute to Francisco Varela. Phenomenology and
the Cognitive Sciences, 3, 381–398.
Varela, F. (1992) Autopoiesis and a biology of intentionality, In
B. McMullin, N. Murphy (Eds.), Autopoiesis & perception
(pp. 1–14).
Varela, F. (1996). Ética y acción, [Ethics & Action]. Santiago de Chile:
Dolmen Ediciones.
13
Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy
Varela, F. (2000). El Fenómeno de la Vida [The Phenomenon of Life].
Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Dolmen.
Varela, F., & Depraz, N. (2000). At the source of time: Valence and the
constitutional dynamics of affect. Ipseity and Alterity. Arob@se:
Anelectronicjournal.
Varela, F., Thompson, E., & Rosch, E. (1993). De Cuerpo Presente.
Las ciencias cognitivas y la experiencia humana [The embodied
mind]. Barcelona: Editorial Gedisa.
Weber, A. (2001). The ‘Surplus of Meaning’. Biosemiotic aspects in
Francisco J. Varela’s philosophy of cognition. Cybernetics &
Human Knowing, 9(2), 11–29.
Weber, A., & Varela, F. (2002). Life after Kant: Natural purposes and
the autopoietic foundations of biological individuality. Phenom-
enology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1, 97–125.
White, M., & Epston, D. (1993). Medios narrativos para fines tera-
péuticos [Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends]. Barcelona:
Ediciones Paidós.
Winslade, J. (2009). Tracing lines of flight: Implications of the work
of Gilles Deleuze for narrative practice. Family Process, 48,
332–346.