Family Therapy – Transgenerational Models – Flashcards

Current family patterns are embedded in unresolved issues in families of origin

-Family as emotional unit -network of interlocking relationships -best understood when analyzed in a multi-generational framework -Attempt to balance 2 life forces: family togetherness and individual autonomy was the core issue for all people

1. differentiation of self 2. triangles 3. nuclear family emotional system 4. family projection process 5. emotional cutoff 6. multigenerational transmission process 7. sibling position 8. societal regression

1. History of the presenting problem 2. particularly interested in the historical patterns of family emotional functioning 3. attempts to understand the nuclear family in the context of the maternal and paternal extended family systems

- a graphic diagramming of the family over the last 3 generations - suggests emotional patterns in each of the partner's family of origin

- management of anxiety and relief from symptoms - increase in each participants level of differentiation in order to improve adaptiveness -basic problem was between parents and family's emotional system -going home again to work on the ability to differentiate

Opposition of differentiation

If you can change the part you play in your family and hold it despite the family's reaction, while keeping in emotional contact with family members, you maximize the likelihood that they will eventually change to accommodate your change

-Boszomenyi-Nagy An ethical perspective: learn to balance entitlement and indebtedness. Relational ethics: a symmetrical give and take-negotiate overall fairness

-Trust is the fundamental property of relationships - a family ledger exists

children take on unconscious responsibilities to aid parents

expectations handed down over generations

allegiances in children based on parental fairness -fair and equitable parenting leads to loyalty -unfair demands lead to invisible loyalties: child continues to pay off unconscious debts to parents -confronting and redressing imbalances is viewed as essential to healthy family functioning

Dysfunctional behavior cannot be fully understood without looking at the history of the problem, the family ledger, and examing unsettled or unredressed accounts

- improvement in the family members' capacity for relatedness, rebalancing the give and take and emotional ledgers between family members - the therapist helps family take reparative steps - well-functioning families are characterized by their ability to negotiate imbalances and especially by their ability to maintain a sense of fairness and accountability in their interactions with one another