Bowen Family Systems Theory 1 
        
        
       Running head: BOWEN FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY  
        
        
        
        
                     Bowen Family Systems Theory:  
                  Systems Thinking and the Emotional System    
                               
                     Assessor: Keith Melville, Ph.D.  
                           HOD 
                      Fielding Graduate University 
                              
                              
                              
                              
                        Copyright © 2010  
                        All rights reserved  
                            by 
                         Sam Rockwell  
                        Denver, Colorado  
        
                              
                              
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                      Family Systems in Context 
          The family process movement is a blend of four streams of thought -- structural 
       functionalism, inductive empiricism, what might loosely be called “family relations” and 
       finally, general systems theory.  Structural functionalism sets out to interpret society as 
       a “body” wherein the structures interplay with each other to form a coherent whole.  The 
       “organs” of the body, namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions, as delineated 
       by Herbert Spencer make up the social system of structural functionalism in basic 
       terms. Functionalism was quite abstract and this led to the development of inductive 
       empiricism which was the attempt to create a more positivist theory, as the name 
       implies. The theorists behind inductive empiricism, writing in the 1970’s were mainly 
       concerned with cause and effect approaches and linear explanations (Burr, Hill, Nye, & 
       Reiss, 1979), and moved away from concepts distinctive to the systems approach in an 
       effort to be more practical and practice-able. The “family relations” specialists were 
       academics who sought to synthesize these streams (including general systems theory 
       outlined in more detail below) into a somewhat integrated body of theory. These were 
       general theorists who taught in academic departments such as Human Development 
       and Family Relations and Family Science (Broderick, 1991, pp. 5- 35).  
          Bowen Family Systems Theory or Bowen Theory (BT) is best understood as one 
       of the major currents of Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory, the fourth of 
       the streams listed above. Bertalanffy sought to coordinate and categorize all social 
       phenomena into a hierarchy or network of systems and create a universal 
       systematization for the social sciences – a “hard” science akin to biology.  This 
       ambitious project was not entirely successful, but Murray Bowen managed to create a 
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       true general systems approach to individual and family therapy by taking a systems 
       approach seriously and conceptualizing and treating the family as such.  Bowen is 
       careful to explain in his writings that BT is not a direct extrapolation of von Bertalanffy, 
       but draws from research in evolution, biology, and natural systems. Bowen welcomed 
       the comparison of his theories with general systems theory but was adamant that BT is 
       not synonymous with general systems theory or intellectual descendents of it (Bowen, 
       1978, p. 359).  His followers have reflected this same tendency to speak less of 
       “general systems” and more of biology. Their writing is replete with references to 
       protoplasm, the cerebral cortex, genetics, morphic resonance, cell division, etc.  
          Bowen was a psychiatrist who treated psychotic children. In 1954 he began a 
       project that involved bringing the families of schizophrenic girls together into the 
       therapeutic process. Involving families in this way was an unusual approach at the time 
       and was not an accepted practice in the Freudian tradition. Bowen observed that seeing 
       the families and addressing them as units expedited the recovery process and he began 
       to adjust his practice and theory accordingly. His early breakthroughs involved 
       observations of patterns and interlocking relationships in the families of the symptomatic 
       patients.  This led him to reevaluate the accepted individualized approach. Bowen 
       recalls these early experiences:  
              The mothers were the active, decision making dominant family members 
          who assumed roles of strength and adequacy.  Both patients were helpless, 
          irresponsible babies. Both fathers were weak, conforming, and devoted in the 
          relationship to the mother. Both normal siblings appeared more mature than their 
          years.  The day to day clinical course, especially in the early months, was 
          characterized by much disagreement, high emotion, defensiveness, blaming, and 
          contradiction (Bowen, 1978,  p. 13). 
               
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          His curiosity about the similarities and emerging prototypes he was observing in 
       the families spurred him on to continue the novel approach and then he began to see 
       positive results in the process itself. After a year of therapy Bowen would make some 
       preliminary conclusions: 
              The families are more comfortable and the anxieties are more understood 
          and contained.  Research observations are more complete and are considered 
          more accurate. The observations made from watching and hearing a family 
          member in relationship to his family is different than composite observations 
          assembled from other sources.  It is suggested that a family member is different 
          when in relationship to family symbiotic attachments than in relationships with 
          other figures. The meetings also provide a clearer picture of staff involvement 
          with the families (Bowen, 1978, p. 14).  
               
          These early observations and experiences contain the seeds of what would 
       become Bowen Theory, a perspective that appeals to a systems view of the world and 
       to therapists who think in universals rather than in the “immediacy of symptom relief” 
       (Friedman, p. 136).  Bowen practitioners insist that BT is not essentially about families 
       but about life, an extrapolation of natural systems in biology and unified field theory in 
       physics.  BT seeks to conceptualize therapeutic challenges as wholes rather than 
       discreet parts. It attempts to reconcile dichotomous components as continuous and 
       process oriented fields and treat the entire nuclear family as a unit of analysis. BT’s 
       approach to psychoanalysis is generally distributed among eight core ideas, as Bowen 
       himself described them (Bowen, 1978. pp. 285 – 320). I have consolidated these to four 
       foundational concepts with consideration to all eight. The eight are differentiation, 
       emotional system, multigenerational transmission, emotional triangle, nuclear family, 
       family projection process, sibling position, and societal regression. Bowen later began to 
       add a ninth, spirituality, but never fully developed it.  Bowen’s followers sometimes