Family Systems Issue 12.1
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Table of Contents: 12.1
FROM THE EDITOR
Robert J. Noone, PhD
ARTICLES: Journal articles reflect natural systems thinking or are relevant to it. These may include concept papers as well as research studies.
BONDING AND BABIES: THE EVOLUTION OF BIPARENTAL CARE AND THE PRIMARY TRIANGLE
Margaret G. Donley, MSW
Although the female brain has deeply embedded maternal circuits to prepare females to care for infants, paternal behavior evolved through different mechanisms. More recent research suggests that male care of the young is often motivated through mating and cohabitation with a female. This has led to questioning the “paternity investment hypothesis” in favor of a perspective that examines male-female interaction as a key ingredient to understanding paternal care.
FAMILY, SELF, AND THE INTERMIX OF EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING
Robert J. Noone, PhD
The evolution of the cerebral cortex in the mammalian line occurred in the context of increasingly prolonged and engaged parental care and, in the human, involved the co-evolution of the reproductive unit of the family emotional system. Bowen theory posits that the family emotional system shapes individual development. This is seen as principally manifested in the degree to which individuals develop the capacity to use higher cortical functions in regulating the automatic emotional system or what Bowen referred to as the intermix of one’s emotional and intellectual functioning.
FACULTY CASE CONFERENCE: Presentation of a faculty clinical case, followed by a discussion with faculty members of the Bowen Center.
DEFINING A SELF IN MULTIPLE RELATIONSHIPS
Randall T. Frost, MDiv
This case provides evidence that the way a young woman has functioned with several partners, friends, and at work, duplicated her position in relatively fixed patterns of functioning in the primary triangle with her parents and in several interlocking triangles in her family. Over a four-year period, as the young woman was gradually able to define more of a self in the triangles of her family, she began to modify her functioning in these other important relationships as well. The woman got more clarity about a career path, enrolled in a challenging postsecondary program, and actively pursued other goals important to her. Changes in the functioning of her parents and paternal grandmother also took place over the four-year period.
BRIEF REPORT: Brief Reports present important ideas in development and promising research in early days.
MARRIAGE PREPARATION PROGRAMS AND BOWEN FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY
Kathleen F. Riordan, MSW
This article provides background information on marriage preparation programs and describes a unique interview format with engaged couples guided by Bowen family systems theory alongside traditional marriage preparation inventories. The unique format includes a review of individual and family functional facts and family emotional process. It also presents an opportunity for the pair to look beyond the courtship to early marriage. The author finds this combined methodology significantly broadens and enhances the more typical approach used in marriage preparation programs.
BOOK REVIEWS: Reviews on books relevant to Bowen theory and its many applications.
BRAINWASHED: THE SEDUCTIVE APPEAL OF MINDLESS NEUROSCIENCE
Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld
Reviewed by Roberta Gilbert, MD
DIFFERENTIATION OF SELF: BOWEN FAMILY SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVES
Peter Titelman, Editor
Reviewed by David S. Hargrove, PhD