Family systems therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps individuals resolve their problems in the context of their family units, where many problems are likely to begin. Each family member works together with the others to better understand their group dynamic and how their individual actions affect each other and the family unit as a whole. One of the most important premises of family systems therapy is that what happens to one member of a family happens to everyone in the family.
Family systems therapy was developed by psychiatrist Murray Bowen in the 1950s. Bowen worked as a general medical officer in the army and then transitioned to practicing psychiatry in clinics and the National Institutes of Mental Health and conducting research on families. While previous psychological philosophies, such as Freudian theory, centered around the individual, Bowen’s ideas centered around the family. He believed that the family was an emotional unit and that changes in one person would lead to changes in the group overall.
Introduction to the Eight Concepts
Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the unit’s complex interactions. It is the nature of a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally. Often people feel distant or disconnected from their families, but this is more feeling than fact. Families so profoundly affect their members’ thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same “emotional skin.” People solicit each other’s attention, approval, and support, and they react to each other’s needs, expectations, and upsets. This connectedness and reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in one person’s functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in their degree of interdependence, but it is always present to some degree.
This emotional interdependence presumably evolved to promote the cohesiveness and cooperation families require to protect, shelter, and feed their members. Heightened tension, however, can intensify these processes that promote unity and teamwork, and this can lead to problems. When family members get anxious, their anxiety can escalate by spreading infectiously among them. As anxiety goes up, the emotional connectedness of family members becomes more stressful than comforting. Eventually, one or more members feel overwhelmed, isolated, or out of control. These members are the people who accommodate the most to reduce tension in others. It is a reciprocal interaction. For example, a person takes too much responsibility for the distress of others in relation to their unrealistic expectations of him, or a person gives up too much control of her thinking and decision-making in relationship to others’ anxiously telling her what to do. The one who does the most accommodating literally “absorbs” the system’s anxiety and thus is the family member most vulnerable to problems such as depression, alcoholism, affairs, or physical illness.
Dr. Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist, originated this theory and its eight interlocking concepts. He formulated the theory by using systems thinking to integrate knowledge of the human as a product of evolution with knowledge from family research. A core assumption is that an emotional system that evolved over several billion years governs human relationship systems. People have a “thinking brain,” language, a complex psychology and culture, but they still do all the ordinary things that other forms of life do. The emotional system affects most human activity and is the principal driving force in the development of clinical problems. Knowledge of how the emotional system operates in one’s family, work, and social systems offers new, more effective options for solving problems in each of these areas.
What Is Family Systems Theory?
Family Systems Theory is a scientific theory of human behavior created by a psychiatrist, Dr. Murray Bowen, based on his research and work experience from 1946-1959 at the Menninger Clinic and the National Institute of Mental Health. Bowen’s Family Systems Theory is significantly structured around at least two core concepts. The first is that a family is a system to which systems theory research and observation apply. The second is that emotion is a primary or dominant force in human development within the family system. Combining these two core concepts leads to the characterization of the family system as an emotional unit in which each family member influences the others to some degree. Therefore, according to Bowen, families should be studied in the context of the sum of all their internal systemic relationships. Inevitably, each family relationship in the family system is affected by all the others.
Integral to the Bowen Family Systems Theory definition is the idea that not only are internal dynamics of family systems of interest to those who study or apply the model, but external system dynamics are also of interest. Remember, Family Systems Theory views the family as a living system. Understanding this is important because, in living systems theory, the family unit is part of a hierarchy of living systems, with each level in the hierarchy comprising the one above it. The hierarchy includes the following: cell, organ, organism (individual), group (family), organization (neighborhood), community (city, state), society (nation), and supranational system (group of nations).
Family Systems Theory regards each family member as part of the living system hierarchy, thereby making the concepts of family systems applicable to social interactions beyond the family. (Concept 8 below).
Family Systems Theory Concepts
Understanding the Family Systems Theory’s concepts begins with understanding the powerful role of emotions in family dynamics. Complex emotional interactions create interdependence and cohesion in families to the extent that family members can sense and react to the wellness or dysfunction in other members. Emotions may be the most influential factor in the onset and progression of clinical problems. To better understand the family system as an emotional unit, Bowen’s Family Systems Theory proposes eight main concepts that can be analyzed in the context of their interactions with one another:
1. Triangles
A triangle represents a relationship system consisting of three individuals. The triad is a profound representation of relationships in several ways:
- It is the smallest representation of a stable relationship system. It tolerates more relational tension than a two-person dyad because systemic tension is borne by three relationships instead of two.
- At any point in time, two people are the comfortable “insiders,” and one person is the uncomfortable “outsider.” These roles are dynamic and alter in response to tension, with each person playing insider and outsider roles at various times.
- Triangle relational systems are significant factors in the onset of clinical issues such as depression or physical illness due to the psychological stress of being pushed into an undesirable “outsider” position by the two insiders.
An example of a triangle relationship system is a family of three (two parents and one child). The insider/outsider roles may be represented by the two parents playing the insider roles in their coordinated efforts to address what they perceive to be the child’s faults or shortcomings. An unhealthy response by the child might take the form of rebellion towards the parents or some other authority such as school or the law.
2. Differentiation of the self
Differentiation of the self is an individual’s ability to sustain a unique sense of self when involved in intense emotional relationships with others. Self-differentiation empowers an individual to resist pressures to conform to the expectations of others and reduces the likelihood that an individual will pressure others to conform to their expectations. Individuals exhibit varying levels of self-differentiation ability.
An example of positive self-differentiation is a spouse who is constantly criticized by the other spouse but realizes that the criticism reflects the critical spouse’s own self-esteem and that the criticism does not reflect the truth. The self-differentiating spouse remains realistic and calm in the face of criticism and does not allow emotions to dictate thinking and decision-making.
3. Nuclear family emotional process
The nuclear family emotional process relates to relationship patterns in four primary areas:
- Marital conflict: this may result from anxiety in one or both spouses, causing them to criticize, control, or try to change the other. Resistance to these things is also part of the conflict.
- Dysfunction in a spouse: this may result from excessive accommodation by one spouse to the excessive demands or critique of the other.
- Impairment of one or more children: this may be caused by the inordinate projection of parental anxieties onto children, resulting in poor self-differentiation and social dysfunction in the children.
- Emotional distance: this results when family members distance themselves from others to avoid the anxiety and tension perpetrated by other family members.
An example of the nuclear family emotional process is a two-income family with high expenses, and one spouse loses their job. This change creates stress for the spouse without a job and additional stress on the other spouse and other family members who depend on that income. The spouse who lost the job begins to self-medicate to ease the tension but becomes addicted to the medications, resulting in a cycle of dysfunction that requires tremendous effort to break.
4. Family projection process
The family projection process is a three-step process describing parental emotional projections onto children:
- Step 1: Unhealthy parental assessment of a child through a fault-finding lens
- Step 2: Parental interpretation or diagnosis of the child’s actions as confirmation of their suspicions
- Step 3: Suspicion of the child’s faults conditions parental treatment of the child
An example of the family projection process would be when parents inform their young child that a new sibling is on the way and then begin to worry that the child is responding by internalizing feelings associated with being less important to the parents. The child becomes a little more withdrawn, and the parents interpret this behavior as confirmation of their suspicions. One or both parents overcompensate their expressions of nurture and concern for the child, which results in the child developing a dysfunctional attachment or dependency on the parent(s) and the child’s continued use of this behavior to get attention.
5. Multigenerational transmission process
The multigeneration transmission process addresses the relationship between the self-differentiation abilities of parents and that of generational offspring. In this sequence, the behaviors and reactions of the parents are transmitted to future generations based on cause and effect, as children model or react to parental behavior and teach their children, by example, to do the same.
An example of the multigenerational transmission process is a husband who was constantly criticized by his father and was distant from him. In the marriage, the husband remains aloof and unconfident in his roles as husband and father. The other family members discern this fear but allow it to continue because they feel sympathy for him. The children carry this experience with them into their marriages and struggle relating to the roles of husband and father in their own marriages.
6. Emotional cutoff
Emotional cutoff is a strategy for dealing with family issues by minimizing or severing emotional or physical contact with family members. While this strategy may provide temporary relief from emotional stress and anxiety, the underlying issues remain buried beneath the surface.
