Hypothesis Check Card

What Is This Check Card For?

At the genogram, or in conversation, an assumption about what function a pattern serves within the system often forms quickly. The Milan School calls this step “hypothesizing” — not a diagnosis, but a provisional assumption that is tested in conversation, not asserted. Cecchin extended this thinking in 1987 to include the stance of curiosity: even one’s own hypothesis stays provisional. This check card makes exactly this moment testable: the transition from an observation at the genogram to an assumption meant to guide further work.

It comes into play wherever a hypothesis is first put into words before the session or during a break in the conversation — only the written-out sentence can be tested against the seven criteria. If the hypothesis holds up on all seven, it can guide how the conversation is conducted; if it is discarded, that is not a failure but a tested assumption that stays with the case file.

What’s Specifically Inside

Seven quality criteria, in a fixed order — from the hypothesis’s form, through its content, to the stance from which it was formulated:

• Circular, not linear
• Falsifiable
• Open to continuation
• Non-pathologizing, open to resources
• Grounded in the material
• Situated in time
• Neutral toward all members

The printable check card for use in the session contains, for each criterion, the test question and a field for keywords, plus a result field with three options: holds, holds with reservations, discarded. An eight-part adaptation checklist for the first time it is used in practice rounds out the card.

What It Doesn’t Do

The seven criteria test the quality of a hypothesis — not whether it is correct. Even a hypothesis that meets all seven criteria can turn out not to hold up in the session. The card replaces neither case supervision nor methodological training, and it is not a diagnostic instrument. If it remains unclear on the seventh criterion whether the hypothesis is plausible from every position in the room, that is an occasion for peer consultation — not for a solo decision made under time pressure.

Where the Content Comes From

The check card summarizes Module 3 “Deepening,” Lesson 17 of the GenoEasy Academy. It draws on Selvini Palazzoli, Boscolo, Cecchin, and Prata (1980, “Hypothesizing — Circularity — Neutrality”), Cecchin’s 1987 extension to include the stance of curiosity, and McGoldrick and Gerson (1985) for the genogram standard that Criterion 5 wants a hypothesis to be grounded in.