Cecchin, Gianfranco

Name

Cecchin, Gianfranco

Introduction

Gianfranco Cecchin could listen in silence before intervening with an irreverent comment, a different point of view, something surprising, able to get immediately to the core of each situation. He highlighted a peripheral aspect following the original path he was participating in co-creating, to deconstruct usual scripts. Along with Luigi Boscolo, Cecchin was the co-founder of the Milan Center of Family Therapy, one of the main systemic institutions between the 1980s and present times. He died in February 2004.

Career

Cecchin received his degree in medicine in 1959 and completed his fellowship in child psychiatry at Hillside in Long Island, New York, and later at High Point, Portchester. Once in Italy, in 1968, Cecchin joined Mara Selvini Palazzoli and her group – psychoanalysts interested to explore systemic ideas. The group became a foursome in 1971 when Selvini, Boscolo, and Prata joined the efforts. In 1980, the foursome split and Cecchin and...