Dr. Murray Bowen, MD
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•1954-1959 Dr. Murray Bowen conducts study
•1959- to his death in 1990, was professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Family Center •He developed a theory that was radical from Freud. •the family is an emotional unit and any change in the emotional functioning of one member of the family/emotional unit is predictably and automatically compensated for by changes in the emotional functioning of other members of that family/emotional unit •For Bowen the family, not the individual as was previously thought by traditional psychology, was the basic unit of emotional functioning. (Please note that the word “emotion” in the term “emotional unit” is synonymous with instinct, not feeling). |
The 8 Tenants of Family
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Hover over the text to take you to a link to explain each tenant.
•Triangles - triangles are when a couple or two family members use a third party to get along •Differentiation of Self -when you know yourself well that someone else doesn't threaghten you •Nuclear Family Emotional System -four basic relationship patterns that govern where problems develop in a family •Family Projection Process -way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child •Multigenerational Transmission Process -how small behaviors and such are similarly passed from generation to generation. •Emotional Cutoff- -when the adult child can no longer coexist in a relationship with their adult parent due to relationship strain from the past. •Sibling Position -the order in which we are born can affect the pattern of how we see others around us. •Societal Emotional Process -how the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society. |
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The Focus:
•According to Family Systems Theory, the issue is enmeshment (lack of emotional boundaries), lack of (physical) boundaries and lack of skill to navigate conflict in a healthy way.