An Overview of Bowen Family Systems Theory

This one hour video, first recorded by Dr. Murray Bowen in 1980, provides a brief summary of the eight concepts of Bowen family systems theory: triangles, differentiation of self, nuclear family emotional process, family projection process, multigenerational transmission process, emotional cutoff, sibling position, and societal emotional process.

What distinguishes this video is Dr. Bowen's detailed description of what he calls the conceptual dilemmas that stand between the listener trained in conventional psychological theory and a full understanding of the theory. It is commonplace to grasp one or two systems concepts without really knowing systems. People hear the theory through their programmed thinking patterns and then years later become aware that they had not really comprehended this entirely new way of understanding human behavior.

These conceptual dilemmas are described under four general headings: (1) a new basic hypothesis about the nature of mental illness; (2) a redefinition of the concept of emotion; (3) the shift to systems thinking; and (4) the necessity of unlearning cause and effect thinking. He describes the importance of Darwin's concept of emotion and Dr. Paul MacLean's research on the brain at the NIH on the triune brain to the development of his theory. He also describes how his own family research at NIH led to the discovery that schizophrenia belongs on a continuum with lesser degrees of emotional illness and that the family is the emotional unit of treatment rather than the individual.

For more information, please contact The Bowen Center at 202-965-4400 or info@thebowencenter.org.