Family Systems Issue 5.2
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Table of Contents: 5.2
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.
CHILD ABUSE IN FAMILY EMOTIONAL PROCESS
Walter Howard Smith, Jr., PhD
This paper uses Bowen family systems theory to explore child abuse as an aspect of family adaptation to challenging and threatening circumstances. Child abuse is defined as violence that is directed toward children, results in harm or injunJ, and interferes with child maturation. As a symptom of individual and family functioning, child abuse reflects basic emotional processes. The way these families respond to stressful events and circumstances triggers their perceiving family responses as threats. Aggression and violence become ways of managing these threats. The essay describes how perceived threats and child abuse are aspects of chronic conditions in families. In some instances, these conditions are sustained for generations.
VARIATION AND STABILITY IN EVOLUTION: FROM BACTERIA TO HUMAN BEHAVIOR
John Tyler Bonner, PhD
It is an obvious point that in living systems variation is necessary for change, and that at the same time there is a great need for stability, for without it all variation would be constantly erased. This is a fundamental paradox that underlies all of biology and in particular evolution. I shall begin by showing that variation and stability are not only ingredients of evolutionary change, but necessary ones. This will be done by showing how this dualism operates at three levels: on the genes, on the process of development from egg to adult, and finally on behavior and by showing how the behavior of humans and other animals is affected by variability and stability. As we shall see, each of these levels deals with the matter in different ways and with different consequences. Let me say right from the beginning that my inspiration for stressing this dualism, and some of the examples I will give, come straight from the important new book by Evelyn Fox Keller.
FROM THE ARCHIVES: A special feature of Family Systems is a previously unpublished manuscript by Murray Bowen and other researchers in the family field..
THE USE OF FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY TO DESIGN A SPECIAL CURRICULUM FOR SURGERY RESIDENTS
L. Beaty Pemberton, MD
This paper describes an application of Bowen theory in an academic setting. Using data from a previously published paper, Dr. Pemberton describes how family systems concepts were used to design and implement a special curriculum for surgical residents who had failed an annual exam testing their surgical knowledge. The curriculum was designed to address these knowledge deficits and to ascertain whether performance on different aspects of the special curriculum would be predictive of the score on the next annual exam. The program director used Bowen theory, particularly the concepts of triangles, reciprocal functioning and ideas about cutoff to develop and administer the curriculum and to relate to the individual surgical residents relevance more than forty years later.
BRIEF REPORTS: Brief reports present important ideas in development and promising research in its early stages.
FUNCTIONS OF BELIEF
James E. Jones, PhD
Beliefs often serve several functions simultaneously, one of which is to support the reduction of anxiety. When a belief reinforces perceptions of togetherness, individuality, predictability, control, safety, and/or hope, the intensity of the anxiety appears ta be reduced. Whether a belief helps to reduce anxiety may have little to do with the objectivity of the belief, its verifiability, or with the differentiation of the believer and those around him or her.
EMOTIONAL PROCESS IN A GROUP OF MALE GORILLAS
Merry Muraskin, PhD
A group of male gorillas, including two silver backs, lived together in the wild over a period of years. A complex emotional process that included distance and conflict, triangles, as well as playful and homosexual interactions, contributed to the group's rich social life. One juvenile served as an emotional hub for the group.
FACULTY CASE CONFERENCE: Presentation of a faculty clinical case, followed by a discussion with faculty members of the Bowen Center.
FACULTY CASE CONFERENCE (no title)
Michael E. Kerr, MD
The transparencies I am going to use in this case illustrate a fairly straightforward and common emotional process. The longer I am in clinical practice, the more impressed I am with the familiarity and predictability of the various patterns in human relationships. I am presenting this as an example of a pattern that Fogarty and Guerin used to talk about as pursuers and distancers.
BOOK REVIEWS: Reviews on books relevant to Bowen theory and its many applications.
BORN TO REBEL
Frank Sulloway
Reviewed by Margaret Donley, MSW
THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN: THE MYSTERIOUS UNDERPINNINGS OF EMOTIONAL LIFE
Joseph Ledoux
Reviewed by Jean B. Blackburn, MSN