Family Systems Issue 8.2

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Table of Contents: 8.2

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.

EMOTIONAL NEUTRALITY AND THE QUEST FOR PEACE: NORTHERN IRELAND AS A CASE STUDY
Stephanie J. Ferrera, MSW
Emotional neutrality or de-triangling as defined in Bowen theory is a basic principle of family psychotherapy. The question addressed here is what application this principle may have to larger systems. Large-scale conflict is driven primarily by emotional process, a process that operates in communities and whole societies much as it does in families. Escalating conflict puts pressure on a community or a society to intervene. Intervention often involves the use of force, with the possibility of calming a disturbed system but also with the risk of further escalating conflict. 

Northern Ireland was a deeply divided society from the time of its creation in 1921 until recently. In a decades-long peace process, the people of Northern Ireland have found ways to resolve their differences through negotiation rather than violence. In Paths to a Settlement in Northern Ireland, Farren and Mulvihill studied this remarkable change from the perspective of Bowen theory . They propose that shifts in key relationships, particuarly Britain’s move to a neutral position, were the essential changes that freed the Northern Ireland communities to find their own way to peace. 

CROSSING THE OCEAN IN SEARCH OF FAMILY
Florence L. Kamm, PhD
Murray Bowen believed and taught that family therapists usually have the same problems in their own families that are present in families they see professionally, and that they have a responsibility to define “self” in their own families in order to function adequately in professional work. However, it was essential to gain a factual account to identify the relationship patterns that were determining my own functioning and work to modify my automatic reactiveness. 

BOWEN'S NIMH FAMILY STUDY PROJECT AND THE ORIGINS OF FAMILY PSYCHOTHERAPY
John F. Butler, PhD
A survey of documents from Bowen’s NIMH Family Study Project is presented to trace the history of family psychotherapy and the beginnings of a new therapeutic role with families, later known as coaching. These developments represented a radical departure from the traditional concept of the therapeutic relationship in psychotherapy. Seventeen documents from the Family Study Project are reviewed to highlight this history. At least two interrelated processes were involved in these innovations. They are the ongoing difficulties in staff management of symbiosis and the establishment of the concept of the family as an emotional unit. Both of these directly contributed to the development of family psychotherapy and a new therapeutic role with project families. Far from being historical relics, the Family Study Project documents are relevant today in understanding the genesis of coaching in Bowen family systems theory and in understanding the ongoing challenges to think systems with intense family problems. Future articles in this area will review the key competencies and distinctive features of psychotherapies and compare these to several distinctive features of coaching in Bowen family systems theory. 

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A special feature of Family Systems is a previously unpublished manuscript by Murray Bowen and other researchers in the family field.

SURVIVAL AND THE FAMILY OF EXTINCTION
Roberta B. Holt, DSW
Introduction by Ruth Riley Sagar, MA
This paper follows a six-year research effort to describe multigenerationally the process of evolution in which the family that survives or becomes extinct is but one link in a chain of biological and social events. Some of the structural patterns, emotional forces, and characteristic lifestyles that seem to predominate in family units that become extinct are described. 

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

FUSION AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS IN THREE GENERATIONS
Presenter: Douglas C. Murphy, MA
This presentation was selected as an example of the context that Bowen theory offers for understanding the challenges faced by an individual with multiple functional difficulties (substance abuse, chronic physical problems, and chronic pain) within the family emotional system in which they are embedded. 

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

THE BALANCE WITHIN:THE SCIENCE CONNECTING HEALTH AND EMOTIONS
Book by Esther M. Sternberg, MD
Reviewed by Ann Bunting, PhD

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER: A BIOGRAPHY
Book by Eberhard Bethges
Reviewed by Robert Williamson, MDiv