Family Systems
A Journal of Natural Systems Theory in Psychiatry and the
Sciences
Back Issues
Contents of Family Systems Volume 5, Number 2
ARTICLES
Child Abuse in Family Emotional Process
Walter Howard Smith, Jr., PhD
pp. 101-126
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 injury, 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.
While child abuse injures children, it stabilizes family relationships. This complicates professional and family efforts to simply change the behavior. Bowen theory provides a conceptual and theoretical framework for professionals to create effective clinical hypotheses and interventions which address both the specific behaviors of child abuse and the basic family emotional processes which sustain the symptom.
Variation and Stability in Evolution: From Bacteria to Human Behavior
John Tyler Bonner, PhD
pp. 127-133
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.
The Use of Family Systems Theory to Design a Special Curriculum for Surgery Residents
L. Beaty Pemberton, MD
pp. 134-150
This paper describes an application of Bowen theory in an academic setting. Using data from a previously published paper, the author 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.
BRIEF REPORTS
Functions of Belief
James E. Jones, PhD
pp. 151-155
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 to 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
pp. 156-161
A group of male gorillas, including two silverbacks, 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
Emotional Fusion in Relationships
Presenter: Michael E. Kerr, MD
pp. 162-175
A presentation at a Faculty Case Conference in September 2000 is the basis for this clinical case report. Identifying data has been altered to ensure confidentiality. The case was presented to illustrate a very common pattern of emotional fusion in relationships.
BOOK REVIEWS
Born to Rebel
Frank Sulloway
reviewed by
Margaret G. Donley, MSW
pp. 176-187
The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life
Joseph LeDoux
reviewed by
Jean B. Blackburn, MSN
pp. 188-192
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