sandra malough cynthia lopez. murray bowen ◦ oldest of 5 children ◦ medical doctor ◦...
TRANSCRIPT
SANDRA MALOUGHCYNTHIA LOPEZ
Murray Bowen◦ Oldest of 5 children
◦ Medical doctor
◦ Hospitalized entire families with schizophrenic member
◦ 1975 founded the Georgetown Family Center
Family = an emotional unit (network of interlocking relationships)
◦ Etiology of an individual’s dysfunction
◦ Families are tied in thinking, feeling, and behavior
Trying to take the intuitiveness out of therapy by
having an objective theory
Multigenerational trends
8 key concepts
Differentiation of self
◦ Occurs when an individual is able to distinguish
between intellectual processes and the feeling
process he or she is experiencing
◦ Greater fusion between individuals, poorer
functioning
Can’t differentiate b/w thoughts and feelings
Have trouble differentiating themselves from others
Undifferentiated family ego mass
◦ “a conglomerate emotional oneness”
In other words, an emotionally “stuck together”
family
Can be so intense family members know each others
feelings, thoughts, dreams, and fantasies.
◦ Originally characterized in psychoanalytic terms
Later referred to as fusion-differentiation
Amount of fusion-differentiation changes
Triangles
◦ Smallest stable relationship system
◦ A major influence on the activity of a triangle is
anxiety
More anxiety = more distance, or closeness
Less anxiety = comfortable back and forth discussion
of feelings
Nuclear family emotional system
Lack of differentiation > emotional cutoff >
fusion in marriage
Unstable fusion in marriage tends to produce
1. Dysfunction in a spouse
2. Marital conflict
3. Projection to one or more children
Family projection process
◦ Parents transmit their lack of differentiation to
their children
◦ Intensity of this process is related to:
1. Degree of immaturity/undifferentiation of parents
2. Level of stress/anxiety the family experiences
Multigenerational transmission process
◦ Transmission of anxiety from generation to generation
◦ Patterns, themes and roles are passed through generations
◦ Less anxiety focused on children = more likely they’ll grow up w/ greater differentiation
◦ Child most involved in family’s fusion has lower differentiation
Emotional cutoff
◦ A way to manage intense fusion & anxiety
◦ Distance ourselves physically and emotionally◦ Escape
◦ Greater fusion = greater cutoff
◦ The pattern remains unchanged
Sibling position
◦ Provides info. about roles people take in relationships
◦ People in same sibling positions tend to share characteristics
◦ Sibling roles are complementary
◦ Reflected in later relationships
◦ Influences triangulation with siblings & parents
Societal emotional process
◦ How families deal with social expectations of things like gender, race, class, sexism, etc.
◦ Coping strategies are passed through generations
◦ Those with higher differentiation deal better
Do not act as problem solver Coach clients to understand process &
structure Encourage expanding familial ties Asks questions Neutral parts of triangles
◦ Best if therapist observes from partially outside the family
Decrease anxiety, increase self-focus De-triangulation Balance fusion and differentiation Understanding, not action
Assessment◦ Genograms
Process questions Relationship experiments De-triangulation Coaching Taking “I-positions” Displacement stories
Nichols, N. P., & Schartz, R. C. (2008). Bowen family systems therapy. In Family therapy: Concepts and methods (8th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Bowenian family therapy. (2008) Based in part on Nichols, N. P., & Schartz, R. C. Family therapy: Concepts and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Retrieved from www.psychpage.com/learning/library/counseling/bowen.html
Bowen Center for the Study of the Family. (2009). Bowen family therapy. Retrieved from www.thebowencenter.org
Brown, J. (1999). Bowen family systems theory and practice: Illustration and critique [Electronic version]. Journal of Family Therapy, 20, 94-103.4
Read each scenario and form an analysis using the 8 key concepts
Taken from www.thebowencenter.org