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