Projects and pathways of living together: the psychosocial perspective

The family, in a psycho-social perspective, can be considered challenged in an epistemic sense: by its nature it is confronted with contexts, with changes, with the ability to adapt to different and multiple life events. The family can be considered as a "project" that transforms itself to unify different and sometimes contradictory situations, outlining family " pathways " more and more differentiated and difficult to predict. Such pathways may depend on unchosen life events, of which one suffers all the consequences and sufferings, or on strongly desired events that open up to possible happiness or unhappiness. The scenario that the author outlines includes the variegated strategies of living together in which the family is more and more declined; alongside a society and a "liquid" love, in fact, even the family no longer seems able to maintain its own form. The construction of its boundaries and meanings through the current multiplicity of family forms, in which each of us can participate even at the same time, represents the main challenge linked to the ability of each one to build and maintain ties.