Bowen Family Systems Theory and Practice: Illustration and Critique
Jenny Brown *
* Private practice, 2 Oswald St Mosman NSW 2088; djkbrown @ Ozemail.com.au
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This paper will give an overview of Murray Bowen's theory of family systems. It will describe the model's development and outline its core clinical components. The practice of therapy will be described as well as recent developments within the model. Some key criticisms will be raised, followed by a case example which highlights the therapeutic focus of Bowen's approach.
Murray Bowen's family systems theory (shortened to `Bowen theory 'from 1974) was one of the first comprehensive theories of family systems functioning (Bowen, 1966, 1978, Kerr and Bowen, 1988). While it has received sporadic attention in Australia and New Zealand, it con- tinues to be a central influence in the practice of family therapy in North America. It is possible that some local family therapists have been influenced by many of Bowen's ideas without the connection being articulated. For example, the writing of Guerin (1976, 1987), Carter and McGoldrick (1980, 1988), Lerner (1986, 1988, 1990, 1993) and Schnarch (1991, 1997) all have Bowenian Theory at the heart of their conceptualisations.
There is a pervasive view amongst many proponents of Bowen's work that his theory needs to be experienced rather than taught (Kerr, 1991). While this may be applic- able if one can be immersed in the milieu of a Bowenian training institute, such an option, to my knowledge, is not available in this country. Bowen's own writings have also been charged with being tedious and difficult to read (Carter, 1991). Hence it seems pertinent to present this influential theory in an accessible format.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODEL Murray
Bowen was born in 1913 in Tennessee and died in 1990. He trained as a psychiatrist and originally prac- tised within the psychoanalytic model. At the Menninger Clinic in the late 1940s, he had started to involve mothers in the investigation and treatment of schizo- phrenic patients. His devotion to his own psychoanalytic training was set aside after his move to the National Institute of Mental Health in 1954, as he began to shift from an individual focus to an appreciation of the di- mensions of families as systems. At the NIMH, Bowen began to include more family members in his research and psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients. In 1959 he moved to Georgetown University and established the Georgetown Family Centre (where he was director until his death). It was here that his developing theory was extended to less severe emotional problems. Be- tween 1959 and 1962 he undertook detailed research into families across several generations. Rather than develop- ing a theory about pathology, Bowen focused on what he saw as the common patterns of all `human emotional systems'. With such a focus on the qualitative similarities of all families, Bowen was known to say frequently, `There is a little schizophrenia in all of us' (Kerr and Bowen, 1988).
In 1966, Bowen published the first `orderly presenta- tion 'of his developing ideas (Bowen, 1978: xiii). Around the same time he used his concepts to guide his inter- vention in a minor emotional crisis in his own extended family, an intervention which he describes as a spectacu- lar breakthrough for him in theory and practice (Bowen, 1972 in Bowen, 1978). In 1967, he surprised a national family therapy conference by talking about his own family experience, rather than presenting the anticipated formal paper. Bowen proceeded to encourage students to work on triangles and intergenerational patterns in their own families of origin rather than undertaking individual psychotherapy. From this generation of trainees have come the current leaders of Bowenian Therapy, such as Michael Kerr at the Georgetown Family Centre, Philip Guerin at the Centre for Family Learning, Betty Carter at the Family Institute of Westchester, and Monica McGoldrick at the Family Institute of New Jersey.
While the core concepts of Bowen's theory have changed little over two decades, there have been significant expansions: the focus on life cycle stages (Carter and McGoldrick, 1980, 1988) and the incorporation of a feminist lens (Carter, Walters, Papp, Silverstein, 1988; Lerner, 1983; Bograd, 1987).
THE THEORY
Bowen's focus was on patterns that develop in families in order to defuse anxiety. A key generator of anxiety in families is the perception of either too much closeness or too great a distance in a relationship. The degree of anxiety in any one family will be determined by the current levels of external stress and the sensitivities to particular themes that have been transmitted down the generations. If family members do not have the capacity to think through their responses to relationship dilemmas, but rather react anxiously to perceived emotional de- mands, a state of chronic anxiety or reactivity may be set in place.