Family Systems Issue 1.2
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Table of Contents: 1.2
FROM THE EDITOR
Michael E. Kerr, MD
ARTICLES: Journal articles reflect natural systems thinking or are relevant to it. These may include concept papers as well as research studies.
FAMILY CONSTELLATION THEORY REVISITED | PART I*
Walter Toman, PhD
After a brief historical introduction the theory of family constellation is presented in a simple paradigm, followed by a review of the empirical data from our comprehensive research including double and triple checks where possible. Research of others in pertinent aspects of the theory is also reviewed. Basic and more complex sibling positions, their combinations in partnerships and friendships, and their roles in parent-child relations are analyzed. The effects of losses of family members upon the development of individuals and families and family life are also analyzed. Their significance in the conduct of individual and family therapy is outlined.
INTERGENERATIONAL ATTACHMENT AND THE FAMILY
Robert J. Noone, PhD
The family has been observed to function as an interdependent system. The integration of individuals into a more complex self-regulating unit is believed to represent the outcome of an evolutionary process which is not unique to Homo sapiens. This evolutionary process encompasses countless adaptations which extend to the beginning of life. Such adaptations remain central to the regulation of the human family.
The prolonged involvement between parent and offspring and the development of an elaborate brain evolved in relation to one another. An understanding of each is important to understanding not only the depth of the interdependence found in the human family relationship system but the variation in adaptiveness observable in the broader human population as well.
CHRONIC ANXIETY, THE ADRENOCORTICAL RESPONSE, AND DIFFERENTIATION
James E. Jones, PhD
Chronic anxiety and differentiation are at the center of Bowen family systems theory. A case can be made that a high baseline level of glucocorticoids, a characteristic of an organism with a continually activated adrenocortical axis, is one kind of chronic anxiety in an individual. High basal glucocorticoids can damage the individual in a number of ways. What, then, influences adrenocortical responding? An organism's learning history and inherited level of readiness to react can influence its interpretation of potential challenges which would trigger the adrenocortica/ response.
Furthermore, the organism's position in the relationship system and the state of the system can affect the reactivity of the individual. Robert Sapolsky, studying male baboons in the wild, learned that not only the individual baboon's position in the relationship system but also his manner of managing interactions has an influence on adrenocortical responding. Some of these behaviors may have some overlap with what would be regarded as differentiated functioning in human beings.
EVOLUTIONARY CONSTRAINTS ON THE NON REPRODUCTIVE SEXUAL BEHAVIOR OF WILD APES
Merry Ratliff Muraskin, PhD
Nonreproductive sexual behavior is defined here to include non reproductive copulation, orgasmic same-sex interactions, and sex-derived signals. Each of these behaviors has been observed in wild apes. However, only the bonobo has evolved a relationship system that, to some degree, relies on nonreproductive sex. This paper argues that the lower frequency of nonreproductive sex in ape species other than the bonobo is at least partly the result of evolutionary constraints on the orgasmic same-sex behavior and nonreproductive copulations of males combined with fewer opportunities for intense female/female interactions in populations of these other apes. For male apes, any advantages of nonreproductive copulation or orgasmic same-sex behavior must outweigh the advantage of reserving all ejaculations for possible impregnation of fertile females. Male apes therefore engage in orgasmic same-sex behavior only when they have no access to fertile females and (except, perhaps, in the case of the bonobo) choose fertile rather than infertile females when possible. Even when orgasmic samesex behavior facilitates a male's participation in the relationship system of his particular group, it is most likely maladaptive. Ovulation of female primates is not linked to copulation or orgasm, and the nonreproductive copulation and orgasmic same-sex behaviors of female apes are therefore not as constrained as are these behaviors in males. Female same-sex orgasmic interactions can be adaptive as well as functional. Sex-derived signals, the other type of nonreproductive sexual behavior, are subject to the evolutionary constraints governing communication systems and are unaffected by differences in male and female reproductive physiology.
FACULTY CASE CONFERENCE: Presentation of a faculty clinical case, followed by a discussion with faculty members of the Bowen Center.
UNDERSTANDING INTENSE MARITAL CONFLICT THROUGH THE LENS OF BOWEN THEORY
Douglas C. Murphy, MA
Currently the field of mental health is highly influenced by several predominant perspectives that view intense marital conflict as unresolvable or set a course of therapy that focuses exclusively on the marital dyad and the resolution of its difficulties through the exploration, expression, and resolution of emotionally charged issues. Bowen family systems theory, in contrast, places the marital unit as part of the larger emotional unit of the nuclear and extended family, thus broadening the context of the marital conflict and identifying it as one of several adaptive processes utilized in emotional systems during periods of distress. Bowen theory provides a platform from which to understand and act upon the manifestation of intense marital conflict.
BOOK REVIEWS: Reviews on books relevant to Bowen theory and its many applications.
FAMILY AND SOCIAL NETWORK
Elizabeth Bott
Reviewed by Roberta B. Holt, DSW
PRIMATE SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Reviewed by: Patricia A. Comella; JD