UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

MURRAY BOWEN

Group 6.
Alarte, Archie
Barbadillo, Lyme
Sepina, Kristine Hans

Murray Bowen
• was born on January 31, 1913, in the small town of Waverly, Tennessee.
• Murray Bowen was a 20th century psychiatrist who developed family systems
theory, also known as Bowen theory.
Overview
• Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family
as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the unit’s complex
interactions.

Contribution to Psychology.
Bowen developed family systems theory because he believed that the family was the
primary source of emotions and personality.
• -He studied the symbiotic relationship between children and their mothers. -He
argued that schizophrenia was the result of several generations of dysfunction,
with each generation experiencing more dysfunction, until eventually a child
developed schizophrenia.
• He emphasized that differentiation of the self is an important goal for every
family member, particularly children.
• He also expanded his family systems theory with the belief that the behavior of
each family member was influenced by his or her birth order and position in the
family construct.
• Bowen also developed the theory of triangulation; occurs when a person
refocuses their attention.
The 8 basic concepts of Bowen’s family systems theory
• Levels of differentiation of self.
- The less developed a person’s “self,” the more impact others have on his
functioning and the more he tries to control the functioning of others.

• The nuclear family

-Describes 4 relationship patterns; manage anxiety, marital conflict, dysfunction
in one spouse, impairment of one or more children, emotional distance) that
govern where problems develop in a family.

• Family projection process.

-the way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child.

• Multigenerational transmission process.

-The way people relate to one another creates differences, which are transmitted
across generations.

• Sibling position.
- Bowen theory incorporates psychologist Walter Toman’s work relating to sibling
position; showed that spouses’ sibling positions when mismatched often affect
the chance of divorcing.

• Triangles.
- A triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the triangle as
the “molecule” of larger emotional systems, as it is the smallest stable
relationship system. Triangles can exert social control by putting one on the
outside or bring in an outsider when tension escalates between two.

• Emotional cut off.

- People sometimes manage their unresolved emotional issues with parents,
siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional
contact with them.

• Societal emotional process.

- Describes how the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level,
similar to that within a family, which promotes both progressive and regressive
periods in a society.
References.

https://yourmindfulcompass.com/about/dr-
bowen/?fbclid=IwAR3WrGV5pM6L5Ep5_sbIXYcZG_s-
GLKRQIl4NWwXmO_oUExyND8uYc9gMbE

https://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/murray-
bowen.html?fbclid=iwar0cswdqwmtqrunsqgn4gpvbrfvzac0zimtjxoz-
5pukqws_iabpgd-i1ao