Family systems theory conceives of the family as an emotional unit and the individual as part of that unit. The theory assumes that an order and predictability common to all human family relationships regulates the family system. This natural family system operates as a single mutually-influencing unit from which each person must differentiate herself, particularly the children as they move through the process of self-definition. A healthy family system is composed of well-differentiated parents who provide the resources their children need to differentiate themselves, thereby reducing unhealthy behaviors such as emotional reactivity and chronic anxiety.
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 patient and his or her mother. While other psychiatrists based the symbiotic nature of this relationship on the unconscious motives and conflicts of the mother and patient, Bowen argued that a mother's intimate involvement with her child during its early years was typical of all mammals. This relationship merely intensified when the child was mentally ill.
Bowen's subsequent research confirmed the emotional intensity of the mother-patient relationship. However, it also revealed that a patient's interfamilial relationship...