Volume 17.1

FROM THE EDITOR
Robert J. Noone, PhD

ARTICLES

THE EMOTIONAL SIDE OF SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
Laurie Lassiter, PhD
Can Murray Bowen’s observations about the health and illness consequences of one’s position in the family be extended to an understanding of the significant effects of socioeconomic status on health and well-being? Research shows that negative health effects are linked to low socioeconomic status, even when people live in a safe neighborhood and have access to healthy food, good medical care, and transportation. Feeling rejected and not part of the larger society is linked to increased inflammation and poor health. Individuals who live in poverty but attend religious organizations and feel part of a community are more likely to avoid the ill health associated with low income. The Whitehall research of stratified British civil servants revealed that health follows rank, even in situations in which a person’s occupation, such as physician, is high status outside of the civil service rank order. The human version of primate hierarchy, socioeconomic status, is generally stressful, as even those of high status and income compare themselves to others. Bowen theory offers a way to understand the instinctive/emotional forces that regulate people outside of their awareness in their reactions to status or lack of status.
Keywords: socioeconomic status, health, gene expression, primate hierarchy, inflammation, immune system.

THE GROWING PICTURE OF INTUITION AND POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS FOR BOWEN THEORY
Christopher F. East, PsyD
Over the past two decades intensive research has been conducted on the implicit learning system in general, and the phenomena we refer to as “intuition.” The import of this research suggests that intuition is not an extraordinary mechanism in the hands of a few gifted persons, but a universal neural mechanism with an evolutionary history based in social adaptation. Research further suggests that intuition is not only highly effective in shaping positive responses, but also quite common in human behavior. Such speculation naturally leads to significant implications in all learning theory, and Bowen theory in particular.
Keywords: Implicit learning system, intuition, dual process theory, Von Economo neurons,moral behavior, Bowen theory, differentiation of self, chronic anxiety, multigenerational transmission 

FACULTY CASE CONFERENCE: Presentation of a faculty clinical case, followed by a discussion with faculty members of the Bowen Center.

Observing Triangles
Robert J. Noone, PhD
This family case is an example of a young individual who, over time, becomes curious about family emotional involvement and begins to use theory to become freer to both be in contact with family and gain some objectivity about it. It is also an example of how gaining some objectivity and making the effort to have one-to-one relationships in the family can lead to change.
Keywords: differentiation of self, family diagram, triangles, one-to-one relationships, emotional objectivity

BOOK REVIEWS: Reviews on books relevant to Bowen theory and its many applications