Comparing Bowen's Family Systems Theory And The Structural Family Theory

The goal of Bowen’ theory is to review developmental patterns within the familial system and the stress centered around the anxiety caused by closeness or the lack thereof (Penny, 1999). Bowen’s theory works to facilitate a decline in stress and anxiety by enabling the clients with education as to how the emotional system works and focusing on how to modify self perceptional behaviors instead of working to change others within the system (Penny, 1999).

For this assignment, two different theoretical approaches will be discussed, Bowenian family therapy and structural family therapy, and they will be used individually to construct a treatment plan to help clients reach their goals. Within each treatment plan discussed, short-term and long-term goals of therapy will be established and the family’s presenting problems will be defined. Two techniques that will be assigned to help them reach their therapeutic goals and any expected outcome from using those techniques will be discussed.

In conceptualising the development of the family system, Bowenian therapists are past-focused. They believe that emotional fusion that is passed down from one generation to the next is the cause of psychological problems (Nichols, 2010, pp 119-122). Normal family development according to Solution Focused therapist produces families with flexible structures, clear boundaries and well-organised hierarchies. This is quite similar to Bowenian’s concept of normal family development. Differentiated individuals after all need to have clear boundaries. Similarly, flexible structures and well-organised hierarchies do promote low anxiety and therefore generate positive emotional contact between family members. The difference is that instead of being past-focused, Solution Focused therapy assiduously avoids the past and focuses their clients as much as possible on the present and future. (Nichols, 2010, pp 321).

Bowenian family therapy views human beings not simply as individual parts that make up a collective whole, but as a collective whole made up of various parts. That is, human beings are relational from birth and belong to a family or some other type of collective system where the joys and problems they experience are done not in a vacuum, but are shared and passed along from generation to generation. “The main goal…is to reduce chronic anxiety by 1) facilitating awareness of how the emotional system functions; and 2) increasing levels of differentiation, [with] focus on making changes for the self rather than on trying to change others” (Brown, 1999, p. 95).

Brown, J. (2008). Is bowen theory still relevant in family therapy field? Journal of the Counselors and Psychotherapists Association of NSW 3. Retrieved from http://www.familysystemstraining.com/papers/is-bowen-theory-still-relevant.html

The Bowen Theory is often seen as an effective starting point for a discussion on family systems therapy because it offers one of the original conceptual acknowledgements of the inherency of family in individual development. The Bowen Center (2009) catalogues the ideas of Murray Bowen, who was one of the first psychology scholars to effectively

Falicov, C.J., & Brudner-White, L. (1983). The shifting family triangle: The issue of cultural and

The role of intergenerational patterns is often used when referring to negative behaviors that are profoundly repeated throughout different generation (Birkenmaier, Berg-Weger & Dewees, 2014). Papero (2009) on the other hand, specifically linked the term intergenerational to relationship patterns that are being transmitted from one generation to another. To bring to light the immersion of intergenerational patterns, a brief understanding of Bowen’s Family Systems Theory is imperative. Bowen’s theory comprises of eight concepts and a major variable known as anxiety (Papero, 2014). All seven concepts address the family system while the eighth focus mainly on the social function of the society (Papero, 2014). In fact, one of the eighth concepts in Bowen theory is multigenerational transmission process playing an important role with intergenerational patterns. While conducting a systematic analysis of three generations within Lani family system, specific behaviors that were demonstrated were dysfunctional boundaries, marital outcomes, anxiety and transmission of parenting style.

Bohlinger (n.d.) states, “The Bowenian therapist would work to impart three important lessons to their clients: self-determination, self-advocacy, and re-engaging with the self in relationship” (Bohlinger, n.d.). The structural therapist is interested in boundaries between the client and the others around them, as oppose to the client’s intrinsic self. (Bohlinger, n.d.). Bowenian therapists work to help clients maintain and balance relationships, unlike the experimental therapist, who confronts the client on strengths and weaknesses, in hopes that they will accept both aspects of individuality (Bohlinger, n.d). Also, Bowenian therapy is interested in “historical” processes, instead of historical emotions and problems (Bohlinger, n.d.). An interesting aspect of Bowenian therapy is the lack of termination. Bowen believed differentiation is an ongoing process, unlike majority of family therapies (Walsh, Harrigan, 2003, p.

Dr. Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist, offered us the family systems theory. This theory views the family as an emotional unit, further providing a thinking systems approach to describe the complex interactions in the unit. Bowen offered, “A change in one person’s functioning is predictably followed by a reciprocal change in the functioning of others” (Kerr, 2000). If one person within the family unit is having a difficult time, it effects everyone within the family unit. An example of this would be a father who is the primary breadwinner for his family suddenly loosing his job. Prior

This paper will summarize the theory of family systems developed by Murray Bowen. It will describe the eight key components to Bowenian therapy and the techniques used during practice. Strengths and limitations will be exposed, followed by a summary of the importance of integration between psychology and family systems theory.

Murray Bowen was born in 1913 in Tennessee and died in 1990. He was the oldest child in a large cohesive family. He trained as a psychiatrist and originally practiced within the psychoanalytic model. In his practice he involved mothers in the investigation of schizophrenic patients. He thought that the cause of schizophrenia begun in mother-child symbiosis which created an anxious and unhealthy attachment. His devotion to his own psychoanalytic training was set aside after his move to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1954 as he begun to shift from an individual focus to an appreciation of the dimensions of families as systems. He began to include more family members in his research and psychotherapy

Bowen’s theory consists of a system of eight interlocking states that describe the inevitable chronic emotional anxiety present in family relationships and concludes that chronic anxiety is the source of family dysfunction.

Additionally, Murray Bowen had an extensive background in understanding the family function of individuals and how they tend to act in structured and unstructured settings (D.V. Papero, 2006). He proposed a theory called the differentiation of self, which is the trademark of the Murray Bowen theory and therapy (D.V.Papero, 2006). Differentiation of self is known as the ability to function independently without being emotionally dependent upon your family, which some individuals can manage how they feel in situations that are prone to create anxiety(D.V. Paper, 2006).

Thus, intergenerational and psychoanalytic family therapies “share several key concepts and practices: examining a client’s early relationships to understand present functioning; tracing transgenerational and extended family dynamics to understand a client’s complaints; promoting