Murray Bowen
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Murray Bowen, M.D., was a key figure in family therapy. Beginning in the 1950's, he developed a systems theory of the family.
Bowen felt that problems within the family unit stem from a multigenerational transmission process whereby levels of differentiation among family members become progressively lower from one generation to the next. The goal of "Extended Family Systems Therapy" is to increase individual family members level of differentiation.
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[edit] History
While at the Menninger Clinic in the late 1940s Bowen noted the intense emotional impact relatives, especially mothers, had on schizophrenic patients. Other researchers also observed this intense relationship and described it as 'symbiotic' and explained it using psychoanalytic theory, that is, on the basis of unconscious motivations and conflicts of the patient and mother. (Kerr 4, 5)
Beginning in 1954 Bowen worked at the National Institute of Mental Health. There he began research that hospitalized both schizophrenic patients and their families. Bowen and his research group observed "aspects of family interations never previously defined." (Kerr 6) Two important observations were:
- Adult schizophrenic patients and their mothers influenced each other much more then previously realized. They influenced each other so much it was difficult to think of them as two separate people.
- This process was not exclusive to mothers but involved the whole family. "The emotional functioning was so interdependent that the family could be more accurately conceptualized as an [single] emotional unit." (Kerr 6, 7)
[edit] Theory
Bowen summarized his theory using eight interlocking concepts[1]
- Differentiation of Self (the most important concept)
- Nuclear Family Emotional System
- Triangulation
- Family Projection Process
- Multigenerational Transmission Process
- Emotional Cutoff
- Sibling Position
- Societal Emotional Process
[edit] Differentiation of Self
Differentiation of self refers to one's ability to separate one's own intellectual and emotional functioning from that of the family. Bowen spoke of people functioning on a single continuum or scale. Individuals with "low differentiation" are more likely to become fused with predominant family emotions. (A related concept is that of an undifferentiated ego mass, which is a term used to describe a family unit whose members possess low differentiation and therefore are emotionally fused.) Those with "low differentiation" depend on others approval and acceptance. They either conform themselves to others in order to please them, or they attempt to force others to conform to themselves. They are thus more vulnerable to stress and they struggle more to adjust to life changes. (534 Bowen 1974)
To have a well-differentiated "self" is an ideal that no one realizes perfectly. They recognize that they need others, but they depend less on other's acceptance and approval. They do not merely adopt the attitude of those around them but acquire their principles thoughtfully. These help them decide important family and social issues, and resist the feelings of the moment. Thus, despite conflict, criticism, and rejection they can stay calm and clear headed enough to distinguish thinking rooted in a careful assessment of the facts from thinking clouded by emotion. What they decide and say matches what they do. When they act in the best interests of the group, they choose thoughtfully, not because they are caving in to relationship pressures. Confident in their own thinking, they can either support another's view without becoming wishy-washy or reject another's view without becoming hostile. (161 Bowen 1966)
[edit] Emotional Cutoff
Emotional cutoff refers to the mechanisms people use to reduce anxiety from their unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other members from the family of origin. To avoid sensitive issues, they either move away from their families and rarely go home; or, if they remain in physical contact with their families, to avoid sensitive issues, they use silence or divert the conversation. Though cutoff may diminish their imeadiate anxiety these unresolved problems contaminate other relationships, especially when those relationships are stressed.
The opposite of an emotional cut-off is an open relationship. It is an very effective way to reduce a family's over-all anxiety. Continued low anxiety permits motivated family members to begin the slow steps to better differentiation. Bowen wrote, "It might be difficult for such a family [that has sever cut-offs] to begin more emotional contact with the extended family, but any effort toward reducing the cut-off with the extended family will soften the intensity of the family problem, reduce the symptoms, and make any kind of therapy far more productive." (537, 538 Bowen 1974)
[edit] Bibliography
Kerr, Michael E., Murray Bowen. Family Evaluation: An Approach Based on Bowen Theory, 4, 5, 6.
Gilbert, Roberta M. (1992). Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thing About Human Interactions. Minneapolis, MN: Chronimed Publishing.
Bowen, Murry, (1974) Toward the Differentiation of Self in One's Family of Origin, as published in Family Therapy In Clinical Practice, Copyright © 1985, 1983, 1978 by Jason Aronson, Inc., 1986 Printing
Bowen, Murry, (1966) The Use of Family Theory in Clinical Practice, as published in Family Therapy In Clinical Practice, Copyright © 1985, 1983, 1978 by Jason Aronson, Inc., 1986 Printing
[edit] External links
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