How Does Bowen Theory Speak to Today's Challenges?: The Projection Process in Families and Society

Presenter: Anne McKnight, EdD, LCSW

Director Emeritus, The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, Washington, DC

The presentation will examine the concept of the projection process in which Murray Bowen describes the anxious focus on a child by a family as well as on a vulnerable population in society. The parents viewing a child as fragile or helpless leads the child to cooperate with that perspective, leading other family members to absorb that viewpoint. A family narrative or bias is created that the “incapable” child has difficulty escaping. Similarly, minorities, such as African Americans, have been the object of the projection process in society over centuries, through enslavement, Jim Crow, and discrimination in jobs, housing, and voting rights. A bias has been created that they are less capable. The question of how differentiation of self emerges in this societal projection process will be discussed and illustrated.