What is Bowen family systems theory?
Bowen family systems theory looks at the family as a single emotional system in which members continually affect one another's feelings and behavior, rather than looking at individuals in isolation. A symptom in one person may express tension in the family's relationships rather than a problem belonging to that person alone.
The psychiatrist Murray Bowen observed patterns of emotional connection while running a research project at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health in the late 1950s, in which whole families of patients with schizophrenia lived on the research ward. He built the theory from these observations, and because it stresses transmission across generations it is also called multigenerational family therapy.
The eight concepts
- Differentiation of self: the central concept. It is the ability to distinguish feeling from thinking and to stay emotionally connected to family while holding one's own views. People with lower differentiation are more easily swept up by emotion or fused with others when anxious.
- Triangles: when tension rises between two people, a third is drawn in to spread the anxiety. A child pulled onto one parent's side during marital conflict is the classic example.
- Nuclear family emotional process: chronic anxiety in the family shows up as marital conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, problems in a child, or emotional distance.
- Family projection process: parents project their anxiety and lack of differentiation onto a particular child, who then tends to be less differentiated.
- Multigenerational transmission process: levels of differentiation and relationship patterns are passed down over several generations.
- Emotional cutoff: handling unresolved emotional issues with parents or the family of origin through distance or ending contact. It may look like independence, but the theory holds that the issues remain.
- Sibling position: birth order shapes the roles and tendencies people take on in a family. Bowen drew here on Walter Toman's research on sibling position.
- Societal emotional process: the same emotional processes seen in families also operate at the level of society, extending the theory beyond the family.
Therapy goals and techniques
The aim of Bowen therapy is less to remove symptoms quickly than to raise family members' differentiation and lower anxiety. The therapist acts as a calm "coach" who avoids being pulled into the family's emotional system.
- Genogram: a diagram of at least three generations showing family structure, relationships and major events, used to spot repeating patterns. It grew out of Bowen theory and is now widely used across social work and counseling.
- Detriangulation: the therapist or client stays neutral rather than being drawn into a triangle, so the two people deal with each other directly.
- Visits to the family of origin: clients are encouraged to reconnect with their family of origin and practice holding their own position without reacting emotionally.
- Process questions: questions such as "What were you thinking at that moment?" invite thinking rather than emotional reaction.
Relation to other theories
Like Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, Bowen theory looks at the systems around an individual, but it focuses on emotional processes inside the family and on transmission between generations. It is often compared with attachment theory, since both hold that early relationships shape later ways of relating.
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Criticism
- Feminist critics argue that defining differentiation in terms of autonomy and reason undervalues relatedness and caregiving.
- Its ideal of separation and autonomy may fit poorly with cultures that value interdependence within the family.
- The concepts were long seen as broad and hard to test empirically. Later work, such as Skowron and Friedlander's Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI), set out to measure them.
References
- Bowen, M. (1978). Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson.
- Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family Evaluation: An Approach Based on Bowen Theory. New York: W. W. Norton.
- McGoldrick, M., & Gerson, R. (1985). Genograms in Family Assessment. New York: W. W. Norton.
- Skowron, E. A., & Friedlander, M. L. (1998). The Differentiation of Self Inventory: Development and initial validation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45(3), 235–246.
- Toman, W. (1961). Family Constellation. New York: Springer.