Introduction
Murray Bowen (1913- 1990) was the first
and only psychiatrist to describe a theory explaining human behavior. He
trained at Menninger and in 1954, Bowen became the first director of the Family
Division at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). His research record
and theory are well known.
Below you will find a one brief
one page summary of his theory and then a longer description that runs 6 pages.
Following this is a short description of Dr. Bowen’s career along
with his CV.
One Page Overview of Bowen Theory
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 complex
interactions in the unit. Bowen saw how the emotional systems
which govern human relationships had evolved over millions of years. He
postulated that differentiation (level of emotional maturity) among family
members produced variation, as individuals became more of less mature from one
generation to the next. In cases where multi-generational transmission,
differentiation among family members becomes progressively lower, this can
also generate clinical symptoms. The goal of “Extended Family Systems
Therapy” is to increase individual family members level of differentiation by
the motivation of those who are capable of being in better emotional contact
with those in the nuclear and extended family. This effort requires
knowledge of the emotional system and how to manage and define self in
relationships. Emotional, biological and environmental influences are
considered as the individual adapts within the family unit over the
generations.
The 8 basic concepts of Bowen’s family systems theory
1. Levels of differentiation of self Families
and social groups affect how people think, feel, and act, but individuals vary
in their susceptibility to “group think”. Also, groups vary in the amount of
pressure they exert for conformity. The less developed a person’s “self,” the
more impact others have on his functioning and the more he tries to control the
functioning of others. Bowen developed a scale to measure differentiation of
self.
2. The nuclear family This
concept describes 4 relationship patterns that manage anxiety, marital
conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of one or more children,
emotional distance) that govern where problems develop in a family.
3. Family projection process This
concept describes the way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child.
Some parents have great trouble separating from the child. They imagine
how the child is, rather than having a realistic appraisal of the
child. Relationship problems that most negatively affect a child’s
life are a heightened need for attention and approval, difficulty dealing with
expectations, the tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for
other’s happiness, and acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment,
rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully.
4. Multigenerational transmission
process This concept describes how small differences in the levels of
differentiation between parents and their offspring lead over many generations
to marked differences in differentiation among the members of a
multigenerational family. The way people relate to one another creates
differences, which are transmitted across generations. People are
sensitive and react to the absence or presence of relationships, to information
about this moment, the future and or the past, and this, along with
our basic genetic inheritance, interacts to shape an individual’s
“self.”
5. Sibling position Bowen
theory incorporates psychologist Walter Toman’s work relating to sibling
position. People who grow up in the same sibling position have important common
characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership
positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers, unless the
parents disappointed them. Toman’s research showed that spouses’ sibling
positions when mismatched often affect the chance of divorcing.
6. Triangles A
triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the triangle
as the “molecule” of larger emotional systems, as it is the smallest stable
relationship system. A triangle can manage more tension than a 2-person
relationship as tension shifts among the three. Triangles can exert social
control by putting one on the outside or bring in an outsider when
tension escalates between two. Increasing the number of triangles can also
stabilize spreading tension. Marital therapy uses the triangle to
provide a neutral third party capable of relating well to both sides of a
conflict.
7. Emotional
cut off People sometimes manage their unresolved emotional issues with
parents, siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off
emotional contact with them. This resolves nothing and risks making new
relationships too important.
8. Societal emotional process This
concept describes how the emotional system governs behavior on a societal
level, similar to that within a family, which promotes both progressive and
regressive periods in a society.
More on these concepts:
Bowen Family Systems
Theory
Bowen theory describes the family
emotional process over generations, and the way it influences how individuals
can function as part of the family unit. Some individuals are freer of
the sensitivity to others and are freer to go in his or her own self determined
direction. Others do not fit well with the needs and expectation of the family
and may then be focused ion in a negative or an unrealistic positive way and
thereby absorb more anxiety than is their fair share. Families are not
perfect, they are organized to produce diversity in functioning to adapt to
various circumstances. If all people were the same there would not be the
variation in the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Any
motivated family member can alter the family emotional process if they are
willing to work on self and relate well to others, without asking them to
change. The ability to see how emotional systems are organized, in a
neutral way, gives individuals more freedom by being less sensitive and less
reactive towards those who may be caught in the automatic and reactive dance of
life.
The Eight Basic Concepts: 1) Levels of differentiation of self “The
level of differentiation is the degree to which one self fuses or merges into
another self in a close emotional relationship. The scale has noting to do with
emotional illness or psychotherapy. There are low-scale people who mange to
keep their lives in emotional equilibrium without developing emotional illness,
and there are higher scale people who can develop symptoms under great stress.
” [1]Murray Bowen, MD.
Families and social groups affect how
people think, feel and act, but individuals vary in their susceptibility to
“group think.” Also, groups vary in the amount of pressure they exert for
conformity. The less developed a person’s “self,” the more impact others have
on his or her functioning and the more he or she tries to control the
functioning of others. Bowen developed a scale to measure differentiation
of self. The scale has been seen as promising a way to measure
functioning. No concrete scale to measure levels of differentiation of
self has yet appeared. Bowen wrote it as a way to see the enormous variety in
functioning. A system view considers the variation in functioning rather
than focusing on diagnosing people.
The scale
goes from100-0, spanning four quadrants:
0-25 The lowest amount of emotional maturity is a result of many
generations of family process in which some unfairly absorb the anxiety of the
group. There is very little to no ability to stand up for self as a
reflection of anxiety in the group. Many decision are made reactively to follow
along or oppose others. Feeling “comfortable” dictates the life course.
25-50 One can know the difference between facts and feelings, but
intense and reactive feeling states, plus the levels of anxiety can degrade
people’s functioning, highlight the decision to do things in order to feel
better. People can lose sight of important principles to guide decisions.
When times are calm people can use principles and think carefully about
relationships and decisions. Principles can enable people to withstand
the pressure to give in to relationships demands. Most people function in this
area.
50-60 This is the area where people know the difference between feelings
and thinking and are clear about the principles that they have defined as
important. Decisions are more thoughtful and relationships are calmer, even in
times of turmoil. If people develop symptom they recover well and are not
caught in negative feeling cycles. People operate on principled and can be more
open with others. When opposed they do not get highly emotional. They
consider the long-term implications of decisions. They can speak about
difficult subjects thoughtfully and do not defending self against the attacks
of others.
60 -75 People are freer of the controlling emotional system and do not
control others. . There is more freedom to be self and to let others be.
Decisions are clarified and connected basic principles. They can express
beliefs without reactivity to upsets in others. They find satisfaction in both
emotional closes and in goal directed activity. They are more realistic
about the way life is than those in the lower quadrants of the scale.
75- 100 -This is an area that humans may evolve towards. 100 would be a
perfect individual in emotional, cellular and physiological functioning.
“It has not yet been possible to check the scale on extremely high level
people, but my impression is that 75 is a very high-level person and that those
above 60 constitute a small percentage of society.” (Murray Bowen,
M.D., FTiCP , page 474)
There are ways to raise one’s level of
basic maturity but it takes sustained effort to decrease the relationship
sensitivity and the way people are confused in relationships and are “fused”
with one another. It is easy to say and hard to do to increase the
ability to be more aware of principles and to separate Self from others while
being aware of the deep connection with others. Separating one’s Self from the
entanglements with others is the main discipline that one enters into as one
begins to define who Self is, and what one will and will not do in relation to
important others. In addition, our functioning is both inhibited and enhanced
by many genetic-like psychological and physiological factors.
The scale
uses numbers to indicate the variation and the general markers for emotional
maturity as to how people are able to handle anxiety and be more mature and
principle-based individuals. We can be aware that we are living in the
middle of an emotionally primed, interactive relationship system. We can do
better by knowing that our functioning is influenced by the surrounding social
system. Especially during troubled times it is crucial to increase our
level of emotional maturity or differentiation, and to become better defined
individuals, able to separate out from the pressure in the surrounding
emotional systems. As this happens one by one, gradually the system as a
whole becomes more mature.
2) The
nuclear family This concept describes four relationship patterns to
manage anxiety: 1) marital conflict, 2) dysfunction in one spouse, 3)
impairment of one or more children, and 4) emotional distance. These mechanisms
are automatically activated as anxiety and stress increase. As anxiety is
absorbed, the history of sensitivity in relationships plays itself out and
governs where problems are likely to develop in a family. Families
tend to function at higher levels if they use many mechanisms and not just
one. It is possible for people to become aware of the automatic nature of
how we relate to one another and to then alter our behavior in them.
3. Family
projection process. This concept describes the way parents transmit
their emotional problems to a child. Some parents have great trouble separating
from the child. They imagine how the child is. They do
not have a realistic appraisal of the child. An extreme example would be
that a child is born blind and the parents treat the child as though she or he
can see. Parents unknowingly project the anxiety about self or their marriage
onto the child by “worrying” about the child. Children often accept the
projection of the anxiety and act out the projection so the parents appear
normal. The child is the symptom carrier for the parental anxiety. What an
observer would see in a family, that uses this mechanism to manage anxiety, are
the following behaviors: an intense focus on the child, very little focus on
self, a need for attention and approval, confusion when it comes to realistic
expectations for the child, and often for the adults, increasing blame on self
or others, pervasive feeling of responsibility for others’ happiness, and
acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment. The bottom line: many
of these kinds of feelings and verbal messages are about one person putting a
“demand” on others to be more for them, and less in favor of the other’s
ability to be more defined and a less automatic Self. Here is where the
mechanisms of fusion and confusion come to be played out. As it becomes
challenging to know: “Where do I begin and end and where do you begin and end.”
People can make assumptions about others, based on projection, partially as
this is how the brain works.
4) Multigenerational
transmission process. This concept describes how small differences in
the levels of differentiation between parents and their offspring may lead over
many generations to marked differences in functioning among the members of a
multigenerational family. The way people relate to one another in one
generation may create intense sensitivities, which are transmitted across
generations. Some may drink in one generation and not in another, but the
anxiety about drinking in one generation may manifest in another generation
around drug use or other behaviors, for example eating disorders. People with
more anxiety and less maturity can pressure others to make up for what has
happened in the past and in doing so make people more vulnerable and even
symptomatic. For example family stories tell us what people in the past have
reacted to. When the next generation arrives a habit or a talent can
remind parents of people they knew or have heard about in other
generations. The association of one person with a memory of another
person can conspire to decrease the ability of a child to develop a real
identity in the family. “You must be a great chess
player like your great grandfather was.” This kind of projection can put
a “demand” on the child to be what the other needs him to be. Love with such a
demand can confuse children. Does the child want to be great, or have ability for
greatness? The potential of the child and the way family members relate to the
child, along with his or her basic genetic inheritance, interact to
shape the individual’s level of maturity or “self.”
5. Sibling
position: Bowen theory incorporates psychologist Walter Toman’s work
on sibling position. There are common characteristics of each sibling
position. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership
positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers, unless their
parents disappointed them. Toman’s research showed that spouses’ sibling
positions, when mismatched, often increase the chance of divorce.There is a
great deal to be learned about the influence over the generations when for
example parents can not understand a child as they are youngest and he or she
is an oldest. A child’s sibling position can be different from the child’s
functional position in one generation and that can have an impact on the next
generation. For example, an oldest sibling is often in the functional
position of being responsible for other siblings, but if that oldest falls ill,
the functional position will shift to the next most able child. If the oldest
is ill and cannot function well then the family may worry about the functioning
of the oldest child in the next generation. Sibling position gives us clues as
to what the average demands are on the various positions
6. Triangles: A
triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the “molecule”
of larger emotional systems because it is the smallest stable relationship
system. A triangle can manage more tension than a two-person relationship as
tension shifts among the three people in the triangle. Triangles can exert
social control by the threat to put one person on the outside of a two-some or
of a group. De-triangling occurs when strategically someone comes into a
polarized situation and makes an effort to not take sides, and to relate well
to each person. In mediation we often see efforts to bring in an outsider
when tension escalates between two individuals. Sometimes the mediator can
relate to each side without taking sides, and in this case the tension will
resolve. Increasing the number of triangles by forming useful alliances
(which do not polarize or blame people) can also stabilize spreading tension.
Marital therapy uses the triangle to provide a neutral third party capable of
relating well to both sides of a conflict.
7. Emotional
cut off: At times people manage their unresolved emotional issues with
parents, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional
contact. This can be a geographical or an emotional cut off. Cut
off makes people feel better in the short term but the cut off decreases
relationships flexibility. It is often an outgrowth of intense blame and the
inability to see ones part in a problem. No resolves takes place, Anger
is frozen in time, increasing relationships sensitivity, which reduces the
ability to be emotionally flexible and puts intense demands of other
relationships to be “perfect.” Cut off carries forward
unresolved emotional issues in one’s family of origin into future nuclear
families and sensitize any new relationships these individuals create.
8. Societal emotional process. This concept describes how
the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level. The emotional
system in society can promote progressive or regressive periods just as it does
in a family. [2] The simplest description is that
under stress the family members can be too nice or too mean. Parents that are
too nice begin to give in to demands for short-term solutions to chronic
problems. Just as in a family, leaders in society have a hard time
identifying the nature of problems and a regression begins by giving in or
trying to solve big problems with little answers. Mechanisms offer us
ready solutions to increasing anxiety: conflict, distance, reciprocal
functioning and illness can absorb the increasing anxiety but only postpone solving
the problems. People react to disharmony and demand more short-term
solutions in order to be comfortable now. A regression is a return to an
earlier period in development where there is less principle-driven behavior,
some degree of giving in and seeking comfort, and perhaps overall less ability
to recognize and respect individuals and to be able to cooperate. Since
the arrow of time is always moving forward, new problems often demand new ways
to adapt, forcing us into the discomfort zone
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