Bowenian Family Systems Therapy – Flashcards
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Who is the developer of BFST?
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Murray Bowen. Is the bridge between psychodynamic and family systems theory.
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What is the main focus (core issue) in BFST?
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balancing family togetherness and individual autonomy
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Overarching concepts: anxiety
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Anxiety is the state of arousal in an organism in response to real or perceived threat.
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Anxiety in families
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- Omnipresent, characteristic of biological systems - Transmitted from previous generations - Relates to family's struggle between togetherness and autonomy - Anxiety is the underlying basis of all family symptomatology. - Resolve through differentiation - Emotions take over cognitions and lead to Bx
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What are the 8 concepts of BFST?
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1. Differentiation of self 2. Emotional triangles 3. Nuclear Family emotional process 4. Family projection process 5. emotional cutoff 6. Multigenerational transmission process 7. Sibling position 8. Social regression
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External boundaries
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the boundary between the family and its environment
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Open systems boundaries
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permeable boundaries enable growth
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closed systems boundaries
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rigid boundaries cause entropy
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random systems
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disorganized system
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generational boundaries
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the boundary between the adult and child generations
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Interpersonal Boundaries
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the boundary between individual family members
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Intrapsychic Boundaries
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the ego boundaries of each family member
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Assessment of Boundaries
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Identify the extent of openness of boundaries: Which individuals are considered as members of the family? ID resources: Ecomap
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Differentiation
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Able to balance thinking and emotion - A process, not an achievable goal - Assessment: Scale 1 (fusion) - 100 (Differentiation of Self)
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What happens in poorly differentiated?
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emotions dominate.
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What happens in Highly differentiated?
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separate emotions from the intellect. Able to retain objectivity and flexibility
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Fusion
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Bx driven by fusion of thoughts/feelings. - Those with higher degree of fusion tend to have automatic or involuntary emotional reactions and become dysfunctional even under low anxiety. - Highly fused persons are "stuck" throughout their lives in role related to position in family of origin. - Fusion is trans-generational (seen in genogram)
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Emotional triangles
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- 2 member system in a family can survive during periods of relatively low stress. - As stress increases, one member may pull in another person or persons. - Higher the degree of family fusion, the more intense the desire to triangulate.
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Purpose of emotional triangles
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- help maintain closeness and distance, between family members. - The triangle dilutes the anxiety, stability of family system is maintained. - If anxiety increases within the triangle, one person in triangle involves another outsider, triangles interlock as tension increases. - The higher the family's fusion, the more intense and insistent the triangulation efforts will be. - The least differentiated person is particularly vulnerable to being drawn into the triangle. - Triangulated person may become the IP.
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3 patterns of Family emotional process
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1. Physical or emotional dysfunction 2. Overt chronic unresolved marital conflict 3. Psychological impairment of a child
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Family emotional process
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- The process of living out the emotional process of fusion (ex: When 2 fused people partner with each other)
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The greater the fusion in the family, the greater the likelihood that:
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- Family interactions will reflect anxiety and instability. - Family members will seek resolution through fighting, distancing, exploiting impaired or compromised functioning of others in the family, or (in a couple) band together over concern for a child. - Dysfunctional patterns eventually result in symptoms in one or more family members
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Family projection process
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the way the undifferentiation of parents is transmitted to their children; parental emotionality defines what the child is like; child tries to conform to expectations.
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What happens in a family projection process when a child is involved?
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parents project onto children
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What is the purpose of the family projection process?
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permits the parents to stabilize their own functioning at the expense of the child.
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What are the effects of the family projection process?
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the focused-on child absorbs parental emotionality and protects siblings
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Multigenerational transmission process
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Serious physical, emotional, or social dysfunction in one generation is an end product of an emotional problem transmitted from other generations.
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What happens when 2 poorly differentiation partners marry?
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they project their lack of differentiation on their children. Children end up with lower differentiation and internalized or externalized problems.
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Sibling position
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- (Tolman) children develop fixed personality characteristics based on their birth position in their family of origin. - The more closely the marriage duplicates one's position in the family of origin, the better its chance of success. - (Bowen) family interactions are shaped by the couple's functional sibling position in their families of origin.
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Emotional cutoff
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- flight of emotional distancing to break emotional ties. -The more intense the fusion a person experienced when growing up, the greater the likelihood of a significant cut-off later on. - Cutting off does not resolve, but intensifies the conflict. - People who have emotionally cut off their family of origin may form new relationships that are all the more intense.
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What happens in emotional cut-off?
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- reflects a problem (e.g., fusion) - solves a problem (e.g., reduces anxiety) - creates a problem (e.g., increases isolation)
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Societal Emotional Process/ social regression
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- how the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level, promoting both progressive and regressive periods in a society. - The downward spiral in families dealing with delinquency is an anxiety-driven regression in functioning. In a regression, people act to relieve the anxiety of the moment rather than act on principle and a long-term view. - It is more difficult for families to raise children in a period of societal regression than in a calmer period.
