Systemic constellations as a nonverbal language
Although the use of the systemic constellation is widespread, we still do not fully understand how it works. This lack of understanding and possibility to explain the methods, tends to give the method a bit of a mystical or esoteric flavour. For some settings this mystical is perfectly fine, but it impedes the acceptance and implementation of the method in an academic environment.
To my knowledge, Schlötter is the only one who tried to unravel parts of the working mechanism of systemic constellations. For this, he performed experiments with life-sized figures which were placed in a way that resembled a constellation of the real case. Then, he invited participants to take the place of one of the figures and asked them to voice what they perceived at that position. In addition, the participants indicated which functions the figures in the constellation had. Analyses of the experiments in Germany and China showed consistent interpretations among participants. A video on his study is available online.
Schlötter referred to a form of social-spatial perception and called it a language. I think he is right. Already in the 1960s, Hall introduced the term proxemics, which refers to the physical distance and position between individuals, as a form of non-verbal communication (video). Strodtback and Hook (1961) studied the interpretation people gave on seating position at a table, without knowing the person. They observed that most people regarded the person a the heads end of the table as the person with the most influence. In an experimental study on dyadic relationships, based on the ideas of Hall, the authors concluded that both interpersonal distance and portion affected the observers interpretation of the social encounters (Wellens and Goldberg, 1978).
Interestingly, our language is full of references to distance and position if we want to explain a social relationship. Just think of expressions like ‘upper class’, ‘middle management’, ‘have someone at your back', ‘stand shoulder to shoulder’, ‘inner circle’, ‘top-down or bottom-up strategies’, etc.
When we approach spatial arrangement (distance, position and orientation) of individuals as a way of communicating we might have a piece of the puzzle to understand systemic constellations. Humans may be able to express and read spatial arrangements of other individuals. With this in mind it is good to realise, that non-verbal communication is thought to be less time and cultural dependent because it is thought be older than verbal communication (there was a time when humans did not use verbal languages) (Communications in the Real World, 2016). This might partly explain the fast international spread of the systemic constellation method and the ease with which the method can be used in a group of people from different nationalities and cultural background. Also, non-verbal communication is often unconscious and you have less control over it than verbal language.
Although there is a lot of scientific research done on the preference people have for interpersonal distance, as far as I know, much less is known about their social interpretation or meaning making of this interpersonal distance. Apart from the studies mention above, I’m not aware of more recent research. So, here is still work to be done. If you are interested to discuss these ideas, or join my research, please contact me.
References
Communications in the Real World. An Introduction to Communication Studies (2016). Chapter 4: Nonverbal Communication.
Strodtbeck, FL and Hook, LH (1961). The social dimensions of a twelve-man jury table. Sociometry, 24 (4), 397-415
Sommer, R (1967). Small Group Ecology. Psychology Bulletin (1967), Vol 67; 2, 145-152
Wellens, AR and Goldberg, ML (1978). The effects of interpersonal distance and orientation upon the perception of social relationships. The Journal of Psychology, 99(1), 39-47.
Schlötter, P (2016). Vertraute Sprache und ihre Entdeckung - Systemaufstellungen sind kein Zufallsprodukt - der empirische Nachweis [Familiar language and its discovery - system constellations are no accident - the empirical evidence]. Carl- Auer Verlag.
Schlötter, P (2018). The social nature of man – falsifiable. Empirical study on the global meaning of spatial positioning of humans to each other. Carl-Auer Verlag