System-analytical approach in therapy: basic principles. This article presents the author’s system-analytical approach to psychotherapy developed by us (Maleychuk G.I., Olifirovich N.I.) and is devoted to consideration of its general principles. The system-analytical approach to diagnosing a client is based on the following principles: systematicity, phenomenology and development. PRINCIPLE OF SYSTEM (integrity, holism). The systemic principle presupposes the therapist’s understanding of the client’s mental reality as an extremely complex, open, multi-level self-organizing system. The systemic principle is implemented in the following settings in the client’s diagnosis: · Difficulties. The need to abandon the causal-mechanistic view of phenomena and adopt a systemic orientation. Personality with this attitude is the result of the influence of numerous variables. Linear causality is replaced here by circular causality. · Multi-level. The client's problem can be considered at several system levels that do not exclude, but complement each other. These levels can be: intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergenerational. · Openness. Personality is an open system; it is in constant interaction with the environment. The nature of this interaction can be represented as mutual influence and interchange. · Complementarities. Personality is a systemic phenomenon and its research and description is possible through various theoretical frameworks and different languages. Any description is incomplete and represents only part of reality. This setting assumes multimodality in the study of the client’s personality. In diagnostics, this is realized through the use of various methods and techniques. PRINCIPLE OF PHENOMENOLOGY. The goal of phenomenologically oriented research is to describe a phenomenon in an experienced rather than an abstract form. The main goal here is to achieve an accurate description of the world of everyday experiences in their closest approximation to how they are lived and described by a specific person in relation to a specific situation. Subjective experiences and their interpretation by the person himself are essential for diagnosis. To obtain the most detailed descriptions of life situations, the therapist uses the following questions: “How did you feel?”, “What was it like?”, “What do you understand by this?” etc. The phenomenological principle is implemented in the following settings for diagnosing the client: · Understanding. The essence of this installation is the therapist’s attempt to understand another person by accepting his position, his point of view, trying to “look at the world from his window” (I. Yalom). Understanding here is opposed to explanation. · Impartiality. The essence of this attitude is the need to exclude any evaluative categories in relation to the client, to avoid analyzing and explaining his problems on the basis of the therapist’s own experience, his moral principles and value orientations. · Contextuality. The essence of this installation is to describe the observed phenomenon in the context of real time and space. The phenomenon does not exist in isolation, but is part of a person’s general perception and understanding of the world around him and himself. · Without preconditions. The essence of this setting is the requirement to exclude preliminary hypotheses in the client’s perception based on theoretical constructs. PRINCIPLE OF DEVELOPMENT (genetic principle). This principle presupposes an understanding of the client’s mental reality as a dynamic process formation that has many potential directions for change. The genetic principle is implemented in the following settings in the client’s diagnosis: · Interactions. The development of the client's personality is the result of interpersonal interaction with significant figures for him. The leading role here belongs to parental figures.· Depths.