1. SANDRA MALOUGH CYNTHIA LOPEZ

2.  Murray Bowen ◦ Oldest of 5 children ◦ Medical doctor ◦ Hospitalized entire families with schizophrenic member ◦ 1975 founded the Georgetown Family Center

3.  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

4.  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

5.  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

6. Fusion Lowest levels Emotionally fused to the family Feelings dominate Differentiation of self Highest levels Separate thinking from feelings Over 60 is a small % of society

7.  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

8.  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

9.  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

10.  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

11.  Emotional cutoff ◦ A way to manage intense fusion & anxiety ◦ Distance ourselves physically and emotionally ◦ Escape ◦ Greater fusion = greater cutoff ◦ The pattern remains unchanged

12.  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

13.  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

14.  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

15.  Decrease anxiety, increase self-focus  De-triangulation  Balance fusion and differentiation  Understanding, not action

16.  Assessment ◦ Genograms  Process questions  Relationship experiments  De-triangulation  Coaching  Taking “I-positions”  Displacement stories

17.  Nichols, N. P., & Schartz, R. C. (2008). Bowen family systems therapy. In Family therapy: Concepts and methods (8 th 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

18.  Read each scenario and form an analysis using the 8 key concepts Taken from www.thebowencenter.org