Family Systems Theory

Dr. Murray Bowen developed family systems theory during the 1950s and early 1960s. Bowen's professional interest in the family began when he was a psychiatrist at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas in the late 1940s, where he treated various clinical problems, including schizophrenia, alcoholism, and depression. Bowen's psychiatric practice differed from the prevailing norm because he had substantial contact with his patients' families. Such contact allowed him to study the inter-relationship of the symptoms of one family member to the relationships and emotional processes in the rest of the family members.

During his studies, Bowen observed that the emotional impact in patient-and-family relationships was always very intense, especially between the pat

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g ever achieves complete emotional separation from his or her family. Nonetheless, people achieve different degrees of emotional separation from their families. The level of emotional separation one is able to achieve from one's family is based on the level of emotional separation one's parents achieved from their families of origin and the nature of the relationship one has with one's parents, siblings, and other important relatives. Consequently, children within one family unit may achieve different levels of emotional separation from their family due to differing interfamilial relationships. Generally, a child's ability to differentiate from the family is influenced by that child's degree of emotional separation from the family. The ideal situation occurs in a well-differentiated family where the child is not influenced by the emotionality and pressure for togetherness of the family. Thus, the child is able to arrive at an appropriate self-image through free and thoughtful consideration of his beliefs, values, and convictions. In a poorly differentiated family, the child is subject to the family's emotionality and pressure for togetherness and is unable to function independently. Rather, the child's acts are reactions. Emo
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Approximate Word count = 1745
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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