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Bowen's Family Theory

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Family therapy is a highly flexible approach which can be applied across the lifespan to both adult and child focussed issues. Its aim is ‘to facilitate the resolution of presenting problems and promote healthy family development by focusing primarily on the relationships between the person with the problem and significant members of his/her family and social network’ (Carr, 2012, p. 54). Ultimately, the focus is on the family and its members’ interactions and relationships. Whilst, there are a number of pioneers such as Minuchin (structural), Gottman (behavioural), Haley & Madanes (strategic), Whitaker (experiential) and Satir (human validation) whose research led to the foundation of their respective family therapies; this assignment will …show more content…

His focus was on patterns that develop in families in order to defuse anxiety. Families differ when threatened by the amount of anxiety they contain as well as how they engage when in ‘recursive emotionally-driven problematic patterns’ (Carr, 2012, p. 161). His belief is that how any family system reacts or operates in a crisis has been transmitted from generation to generation. When family members mirror behaviour they have witnessed and which has been passed onto them by their parents and grandparents, be it positive or negative, is what Bowen referred to as ‘multigenerational transmission processes’. Bowen’s theory was to understand that these multigenerational transmission forces are what create the symptoms and not just individual genetic …show more content…

Bowen considered that sibling position affects variation in basic and functional levels of differentiation. Sibling position could provide useful information in understanding the roles individuals tend to take in relationships. An individual is born into a sibling position. The first child, for example, the eldest are more likely to take on responsibility and leadership whilst the last born, youngest child may be more comfortable in being dependent and allowing others to make decisions. Bowen was particularly interested in the link between sibling position and the vulnerability to triangling with parents. ‘For example, a family that has an oldest who acts like a youngest can expect a good deal of triangulation with that child’ (Winek, 2010, p. 88). In other words, the family member who “has the problem” is triangulated and serves to stabilize a dyad in the family. Bowen would have stressed sibling order believing that each child had a place in the family hierarchy, and thus was more likely to fit some family projections. An example could be, an oldest child grows up and marries another older sibling. Both may be drawn to each other for their maturity and responsibility

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