Published: October 2025
Keywords:
Coherence Complexity Understanding Systems thinking Self-organization Circularity Interpretive cycle Empathy Self-referentiality Morphogenesis Von Foerster Maturana Varela Morin Bion.
Umberta Telfener
Umberta Telfener: Teacher of the Milan Approach, current President of EFTA, former adjunct Professor at the postgraduate School of Health Psychology of the University of Roma La Sapienza. She supervises Institutions and Community work and has been in private practice since 1980. utelfener@gmail.com
Luca Casadio
Luca Casadio, psychologist and psychotherapist, worked as a managing psychologist for the USL. He teaches in several graduate schools and has published some books and numerous articles. Including: "Systemics: voices and paths in complexity", with Umberta Telfener and the supervision of Heinz von Foerster, Bollati Boringhieri, 2003, "Between Bateson and Bion, at the roots of relational thinking", Antigone editions, 2010. Regarding the relationship between art and psychology has published: "The images of the mind: for a psychoanalysis of cinema, art and literature" Franco Angeli, 2004, and "The art of psychotherapy and the psychology of art", Mimesis, 2015.
Abstract
Three of the most dense and rich entries of this unique book, whose beauty and importance we rediscover in every issue. Together, these three concepts compose a coherent framework that redefines the idea of scientific knowledge as a relational, reflexive, and dialogical process.
On the other hand, we struggled with COHERENCE, COMPLEXITY, and UNDERSTANDING! (In the translation, the editing, and in the understanding!).
Perhaps the readers of Metalogue will offer their own impressions, thoughts, and suggestions, contributing to the completion of the book and its electronic “republication.”
COHERENCE (COERENZA / COHERENCE)
By Giuseppe Varchetta
The concept of coherence operates on multiple levels:
- On the physical level, as the stability and organization of a system’s elements,
- On the psychological level, as consistency among thoughts, emotions, and actions,
- And on the social level, as the ability of groups or communities to coexist without dissolving their differences.
In systemic thinking, coherence does not mean uniformity or stagnation, but dynamic equilibrium.
Contrary to the tendency to see stability as a value, here coherence emerges from relations of tension and differences that sustain the whole.
The coherence of a system depends on its ability to integrate contradictions and organize discontinuities.
Coherence is not a fixed state, but a relationship in continuous transformation. It is the ability to remain open to difference without losing one’s form; the art of belonging to a whole without losing oneself.
COMPLEXITY (COMPLESSITÀ / COMPLEXITY)
By Giuseppe Varchetta
Its very etymology shows that complexity does not simply mean difficulty but interconnection, interweaving, and simultaneously autonomy..
Complexity is not a problem to be solved, but a challenge of understanding (Morin).
In common language, it is often confused with complication, which implies confusion or difficulty. However, while the complicated refers to something difficult to analyze, the complex refers to a system of organized relations, where each part is connected to the others and to the whole. Complexity is characterized by interdependence and autonomy.
Knowledge, instead of fully explaining, must learn to coexist with the incomplete, to work with uncertainty, contradictions, and discontinuities.
Complexity is a way of thinking and a way of being: to recognize the limits of knowledge, to accept ambiguity, and to remain open to transformations of meaning.
The thinking of complexity is dialogical — it accepts the existence of contradiction and plurality without seeking their fusion.
UNDERSTANDING (UNDERSTANDING / VERSTEHEN)
By Giuseppe Varchetta, Heinz von Foerster
Even from its etymology it is clear that understanding belongs to a higher level; it is a second-order cognitive function in relation to other human mental processes.
Understanding is always relationship: between the one who understands and the object of understanding, whether it concerns knowledge, art, events, or persons.
The result is a penetration into reality, a merging with it, beyond any measurable criterion.
We do not see because there is light; we see because we understand what we see.
SISTEMICA Entries
ISSUE 33
Abduction, Structural Coupling, Adaption
ISSUE 34
Art, Expectation, Autonomy
ISSUE 35
An Outline of Bateson’s Ideas (in collaboration with Giovanni Madonna), The evolution of Bateson’s ideas
ISSUE 36
Self-Organization, Autopoiesis / Allopoiesis, Self-Reference, Self-Value, Biosphere / Ecosphere / Noosphere
ISSUE 37
The Paradigm of Complexity-1st part
ISSUE 38
The Paradigm of Complexity-2nd part, Chaos
ISSUE 39
Constructivism
ISSUE 40
Observer/Subject, I/We, Self/Selves
ISSUE 41
Data/Capta, Decision/Choice, Rationality, Deconstruction/Deconstructionism, Thick Description, Description/Explanation
ISSUE 42
Narration, Story, Metaphor/Analogy
ISSUE 43
Catastrophe Theory, Cause/Effect, Causality/Circularity, Circular Questions, Uroboros, Cybernetic Brain, Brain-Mind
ISSUE 46
Change/Homeostasis, Calibration, Change/Necessity
ISSUE 47
Control, Bizarre Reflexive Circuit
