Ordinary People and Family Systems

The family consists of the mother Beth, father Calvin, and their son Conrad who are living in the aftermath of the death of the oldest son Buck. Conrad, who has attempted suicide and hospitalized because he inability to overcome grief and misplaced guilt, and therapy as way to feel more in control. Beth on the other hand always favored Buck and does not connect with Conrad. Whereas, the father Calvin is trapped in trying to hold the family together, but those pressures are building and he is coming to realizations of his own.

Family systems theory is useful when working with families who are impacted by an ASD diagnosis. The family systems theory focuses on the shift of an individual perspective to a family systems perspective. Family is the most important support system for a child. Family is looked at as a unit, therefore by using the family systems theory the professionals are able to identify the family’s influences on the individual. The family system impacts a child’s development as family members affect the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of one another (Paylo, 2011).

You essentially live vicariously through them. In my opinion, the most important lessons that the characters learn are that you’re never truly alone, and it’s always best to seek out help if you’re suffering. Saul suffered in silence for so long after he lost his parents, grandmother, and eventually his self. Along with loss he also dealt with racism on and off the hockey team, sexual, emotional and physical abuse, he was stripped of his spiritual and cultural identity etc. Saul dealt with many hardships in life and up until meeting the Kelleys, Saul didn’t have anybody that had his best interest in mind to talk to other than his grandmother, but she passed early on in his life. “I understood then that when you miss a thing it leaves a hole that only the thing you miss can fill.”(Wagamese pg 219) This quote puts some of Saul’s lack of communicating on a deeper level into perspective. if you lose someone or something you love only something that causes the same emotion can fill it. Due to the fact that Saul never felt safe, he wasn’t able to open up to anyone in his early to midlife which I think caused his alcoholism. After a while Saul ended up seeking help and started battling his demons. The biggest of which was the need to go back to the residential school that brought most of his pain and emotional turmoil. I believe that he had to go back to see that the pain and suffering was finally over. The fact that the school was shut down and Saul was still functioning was a very powerful image for

Feldman, R. S. (2014). Development across the life span (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

In the movie Ordinary People, the Jarrett family is faced with traumatic events that provoke situations of crucial communication. The family members, Conrad (son), Beth (mother), and Calvin (father), have to deal with the loss of their beloved older son and brother. The loss of Buck hit Conrad, especially hard, resting displaced guilt on his shoulders. Conrad buckles under the guilt and pain, allowing him to draw in the dark emotions that fill his heart and mind attempting to end his life and end the agony. The opening of the movie is set in the time following Conrad’s release from the hospital when he returns to a quiet home with little love and compassion released from his mother's heart. He returned to a place of more pain. Beth, the mother,

He was used to live in his brother’s shadow, but when the boat accident happened to them, he was the only one to survive. As he was always indentifying himself the less important one, he considered it was wrong that he was the one who would still have a life. As a result of nervous breakdown, he tried to kill himself with cutting his wrists in the bathroom, fortunately his father found out and save him. Then he went to the psychiatric for four months. When he comes back, there are still issues he needs to deal with.

First we must look for the root causes of the turmoil in the Jarrett family. The initial crisis was caused by the death of the Jarrett family's older son Buck Jarrett. His death in a sailing accident has left each of the surviving members of the family with their own issues. In response to this

The Jarrett family is in the movie Ordinary People is an example of a family that is hurting and needs help. Conard the youngest son has been and going through a lot throughout the movie. His mother Beth does not know how to cope with Conrad and his dad after losing her favorite son in a drowning accident. Calvin the father of Conrad tries to show that he cares about how his son is feeling, but him showing that he cares about Conrad which freaks him out since he is getting mixed emotions throughout his family. This family many emotional conflict throughout this movie. It is a constant fight or flight between these characters and the people around them.

The film “Ordinary People” is story about the Jarrett family, an upper middle class family living in the picture perfect suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. The story begins shortly after the tragic and untimely death of the oldest son, Jordan (also referred to as Buck), who died in a boating accident, that his younger brother Conrad, survived. When a traumatic event such as this occurs some families unite and battle the grief and heartache together, as a unit, while others become emotionally isolated and detached from one another. This is the case for the Jarrett's. The depth of grief that each individual character is suffering is uncovered as the film progresses. This tale is

This family comes together in a time when they all need it. Phillip at one point tells Judd he’s on his side and has his back no what the situation is. Then every time Judd and Wendy meet on the roof to talk they are creating a turning point during a bad time. It can be see that each brother, sister, brother, brother, and/or mother, child moment is a growing point where something/someone else is thinking and acting different. The Altman family displays resilience by walking away at the end and assuring each other that they have their backs.

One of the most important aspects of Judith Guest’s book Ordinary People are the different complex comparisons between characters. Each character is very unique in the way that they deal with things differently and they each have very different perspectives on their lives and how they are living them.Two characters that I observed were both opposite and similar in many ways were the Jarrett parents, Cal and Beth. Throughout the book the reader is exposed to each parent’s relationship with their son Conrad, as well as how they are coping with the recent tragedies that consist of both the death of their oldest son Jordan and Conrad attempting suicide. Cal and Beth act as though they are complete opposites along with the fact that they handle situations differently, but in the end they are similar in more

The family structure is made up of individuals living together in intimate groups with the purpose of caring and supporting each other. Rules and boundaries, spoken and unspoken, are developed by the family members. Family rules and boundaries change and shift over time in order to evolve and grow as a family unit. Some changes are subtle, but some events force major change within the family system. This paper applies the concepts of systems theory to the family system in the movie Sweet Home Alabama. Reese Witherspoon (Melanie Smooter) and Josh Lucas (Jake Perry) star in this heart-warming film telling a story of a young woman who flees from Alabama to reinvent herself in New York City as a high fashion designer. She leaves behind

The Jarrett's' have always believed themselves to be ordinary people, but after a their firstborn son, Jordan "Buck" Jarrett, drowns and their second born son, Conrad, attempts suicide their whole world is turned upside-down. When Conrad comes home from his mental institution he feels that things have changed. Conrad's relationship with his parents has changed. The relationship that Conrad has with his parents change throughout the novel and are shaky all the way to the last page.

When I consider family systems, I am reminded of a metaphor I heard while in undergraduate school about a mobile. A mobile is used to soothe an infant, normally placed above a crib or basinet. Each of its parts are in balance, when working correctly, however if one section becomes off balance the objects become out of sync. This is true with families. If each member of the family unit is doing their part, there is complete balance or homeostasis (Henson). This balance is viewed as a healthy family system. However, if one part of the unit becomes off balance, it disrupts the whole unit causing an unhealthy response with possible long term consequences. As families grow, each member plays an equally important role in the family unit. Children learn quickly the importance of relationships and adapt quickly to their environment. No one can deny the family unit is the most complex system in existence.

After a thorough review of the textbook and the course material, the specific family system approach that I choose to explore is the Bowenian Approach for this literature review. This specific family system approach is also known as the Bowen Family System Theory as well (D.V. Papero, 2006). The Bowen Family System Theory was established by Murray Bowen, a theorist and psychiatrist who specialized in treating children who were deranged and had schizophrenia (Rockwell, 2010). In the 1950s, Bowen wanted to explore a new venture so he decided that he wanted all of the family members of each child to be involved in an therapeutic process at the same time (Rockwell, 2010).