d attachments to relationships, differentiated individuals demonstrate rationality, objectivity and autonomy in their lives (Bowen, 1967, "The Theoretical Concepts"; Hall, n. d., "Eight Processes"; Kerr & Bowen, 1988, pp. 69-71). According to McKnight (1998), well-differentiated individuals are individuals who have achieved a higher level of evolutionary functioning by being able to rationalize about their emotions. It is important to point that they are not emotionless individuals; rather, they are able to experience their emotions without being "overwhelmed" by them (p. 269; Meyer, 1998, pp. 92-96).
Within the context of the family system, the level of differentiation within the individual will determine whether the individual can withstand the fusion that occurs within a family system, in which the distinctive identity of one individual is subsumed by another (Hall, n. d., "Eight Processes"). A differentiating individual who is changing typically encounters resistance from the rest of th
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