![]() Therapeutically, Bowenians work with marital couples in a calm and carefully detriangulated manner with the attempt to resolve fusion between the parents. Although his therapeutic techniques are more cognitive than affective, he postulated either concepts to identify the emotional processes taking place in a nuclear as well as an extended family. The goal of therapy is self-differentiation which must be self-motivated and not initiated by a therapist according to Bowen.īowen saw the family as an emotional unit, a network of interlocking relationships which are best understood when analyzed from a multigenerational framework. It is an individual’s ability to separate his/her intellectual and emotional functioning while maintaining autonomy from the emotional issues of others and is able to function on the basis of reasoned principles. Self-differentiation is very basic to the Bowenian theory. Self-differentiation starts with one individual and progresses into the transforming of relationships in the entire family system. Therapy, therefore, takes place from the inside out. Even though Bowen hypothesizes that each family’s emotional system is rooted in its own multigenerational history, therapy is aimed at change in individuals or couples who are capable of affecting other family members. Thus, a downward spiral will continue from generation to generation until unresolved emotional attachments and cutoffs are dealt with successfully. Also central to Bowen’s theory is the concept of multigenerational transmission and each generation moves toward a lower level of differentiation. ![]() Bowen, who was an evolutionist, based his theory on the idea that people are the result of an evolutionary process, although all processes are common in nature. His family systems theory may be considered a main bridge from psychodynamically oriented views to systems perspectives. ![]() Introduction: Murray Bowen was the developer of family systems theory. Bowenian Family Systems Theory and Therapy
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