• Triangles
  

• Differentiation of Self
  

• Nuclear Family Emotional System
  

• Family Projection Process
  

• Multigenerational Transmission Process
  

• Emotional Cutoff
  

• Sibling Position
  

• Societal Emotional Process
  

2. Sibling position:

3. Projection:

4. Triangles:

5. Cutoff:

6. Multigenerational process:

7. Societal Emotional Process relevant to bin Laden family facts:

8. Factors to Consider When Assessing Differentiation of Self:

MANAGING FEAR: IMAGES FROM THE DEEP
Kathleen Cotter Cauley, M. Ed, LMFT

During the past several weeks I have been interested in people’s efforts to describe their mental images related to the terroritst attacks on September 11th. Everyone has a story to tell about when they learned of the events, what they were doing, where they were sitting or standing, and how these events have influenced their thinking. They also describe relationships with people they know who were directly or indirectly involved in the attacks.

Telling their stories seems useful to people, and I am no exception. It would be useful to me to tell my story, to describe the images that I have taken away from those days, and to explain how the images have been helpful to me in adjusting to our new world.

It is still remarkable to me that I was so far removed from technology that I did not know of the terrorist events until Thursday evening, September 13th. My husband and I were scuba diving in the Sea of Cortez, east of the Baha Peninsula in Mexico.

The images in my mind are of sea lions playing, flirting, grabbing my fin; a sea lion tossing a star fish up into the water above her head, watching it float to the sand, retrieving it once more; a 700 pound male cruising the boundary of his family, barking to mark his territory, and a male and female mating in the water, in front of their child: FAMILIES AT SEA.

The images in my mind are of a giant pacific manta ray with 20-25 foot wing span flying overhead. Two large ramora fish are riding on his back and feeding on parasites. The manta ray getting cleaned by the ramora and the ramora conserving energy and getting a free ride: RECIPROCITY at work before my eyes.

My images are of an octopus feeding on its prey, a small gobie fish coming in for a bite, and the octopus swatting the gobie with one of its tenacles: TRIANGLES AT SEA.

I have an image of intense surge one day. Its movement shifting schools of fish off to the left, then back to the right. I followed their lead. They looked at me, fish and humans managing the surge and trusting the rhythm. I swear they spoke with their eyes to say “ pretty rough down here today!”: PROJECTION PROCESS AT SEA.

When I returned to land after a week of silent underwater experiences and only the sound of my breathing, it was incomprehensible to envision a world under attack. The underwater images remained embedded in my brain: the natural organization of sea lions, the reciprocity of the cleaning/ feeding team of manta and ramora, the survival feeding mechanism of the octopus, and the importance of managing myself in their world. The diver’s skill is to manage fear, rely on one’s senses, adjust to changing conditions, stay thinking at all times and, above all, never hold your breath.

And so I trust this natural order under the sea and up on land where this world of ours is a different place than it was before September 11th. The self management is the same. The reality of uncertainty has always been there but is now a focus. My guiding principles remain: stay calm, keep thinking, manage anxiety, stay alert, adjust to changing conditions, and never hold your breath.

Bowen Theory and September 11
Ona Cohn Bregman

Bowen theory can provide a lens for reflecting on the events of September 11. Although the events were more horrific than most would imagine, they weren’t a total surprise. Anxiety in society has been intensifying as countries and their subsystems polarize. Negotiators fail to approach countries with the neutrality Bowen suggested needs to be introduced to an anxious system. It is predictable that such a system will lose the ability to function responsibly.

Dr. Bowen, in his thinking about societal emotional process, suggested that increased and prolonged anxiety in society can lead to a gradual lowering of the functional level of differentiation. It is a logical progression to have factions of that society move to extreme forms of behavior, focusing on and blaming others as the relationship systems in society are increasingly governed by emotions.

Dr. Bowen also suggested that principles can be misused during times of regression. Shifting alliances and investment in various regions of the world appears to be operating less on principle and more on expediency. Triangles are formed as sides are taken and emotional reactions heighten.

When people or other human systems like countries take sides, the system in the outside position reacts, often with much emotional intensity. Without thoughtful principles to guide decision making, opportunism and isolated self interest can direct choices.

In addition, the imbalance of resources in countries around the globe contributes to distance between those who have and have not. When resources are scarce, anxiety goes up and societies move toward togetherness and react against something. Extreme polarizing can occur, moving some people and populations to unregulated hatred and behavior. The United States has the potential to introduce neutrality to polarized twosomes.

On the evening of September 11th it seemed the lens of Bowen theory had the potential to both contribute a broader perspective and to raise anxiety. The potential grows out of believing that if some leaders and other people were able to step back from their own emotional process to observe it and think about it, their contribution to the larger system might be different. The anxiety comes from understanding how difficult this is and the low likelihood that today’s leaders understand how connected the world situation is to their own inability to step back.

If differentiation and differentiated relationships are essential for our survival, how can society move in this direction? That has to begin with a focus on self by leaders and members of society. This writer’s experience is that it is difficult to focus on self, operate on principle, and manage anxiety in the shadow of all of this.

Michael E. Kerr, MD
Introduction to Family Systems Volume 6 Number 1

As I write for this issue of Family Systems, I think also about the state of the world since September 11, 2001. None of the articles in this issue address directly the subject of societal emotional process, but they are nonetheless relevant to it. What is more relevant to the horrific phenomena intruding continuously into our intellectual and “emotional” consciousness than symbiotic relationships, generational transmission of emotional process, suicide, triangles, and differentiation of self?

I spent an hour by the Pentagon yesterday looking at the damage that had been wrought. Others have commented that seeing the destruction first hand--in New York, Washington, or Pennsylvania--has a more powerful effect than televised or printed images. The immensity of the destruction when viewed first hand is overwhelming. As the impact of what I was experiencing washed through me, I was struck with how anxiety-driven emotionality can hijack human intelligence with alarming ease. I was reminded of Murray Bowen’s musing that man’s brain could be an evolutionary development that leads to his extinction.

I speak briefly to current societal events in introducing this issue of the journal because it is incomprehensible not to mention them. People developing and representing Bowen theory do so in an increasingly regressed society. If Bowen’s speculation is correct that the anxiety driving the current regression is more related to man’s relationship with nature than man’s relationship to his fellow man, the regression will not soon disappear.

A small percentage of people will continue to try to think for themselves, to separate fact from feeling, and to act on that thinking in the family, work, and social arenas. Bowen theory contributes to such people and such people contribute to others without trying to enlighten or change them. To survive, each of us must show respect for the oceans, atmosphere, land, and all species that our utter dependence on them demands.

SOCIETAL PROCESS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Michael H. Quinn, PhD

This paper examines aspects of Middle East emotional process prior to September 11th. The purpose is not to seek dogmatic solutions to complex problems, or to explain away difficult relationship issues, but to ask questions using the lens of Bowen theory.

Growth toward differentiation requires objectivity. Objectivity involves factual questioning about the part self plays in relationship problems. For Americans, what have been the most important challenges in dealing with Middle East conflicts? Where are the emotional pressures? What is perceived? What are the facts?

For example, many people believe oil is scarce. Years ago Middle East oil production was cut back, creating high oil prices, triggering an “oil crisis,” and the perception that oil was scarce. People also perceived that investigating other sources of oil would jeopardize the environment. In fact, these perceptions appear inaccurate (Lomborg, 2001). How might perceptions affect how American depend on, and take actions in, the Middle East? Anxiety about oil scarcity might contribute to an over-reliance on resources there, and heighten anxious focus on conflicts in the region. Anxious focus increases vulnerability to intense triangles.

Triangles describe predictable patterns of emotionality between any three parties (Bowen, 1978). The triangle is the molecule of emotional systems. According to Bowen, when one takes sides, one is potentially triangled; when one talks to influence others, one is actively triangled. This has implications for US neutrality in a triangle with Israel and with the Arab world, respectively, especially regarding the issue of Palestine.

If America insists on peace, neutrality becomes difficult. For example, consider Palestinians in the outside corner of a triangle, with Israel and the US in the inside corners. If Palestinians react to their outside position by attacking Israel, Israel may retaliate. The US then criticizes the retaliation and influences Israel’s behavior, functioning for others, not for self. The United States can become a function of the triangle, thereby compromising self, its potential to be a resource, and increasing its vulnerability to attack.

Theory is a lens to frame questions that take into account the complexity and emotional intensity of human relationships. The concept of emotional process in society addresses and respects this complexity and intensity.

References
Bowen, M. (1978). Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson.
Lomborg, B. (2001). The skeptical environmentalist. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

WAR: END-POINT OF DISHARMONY WITH NATURE
Mary Catherine Bass, LCSW, 10-19-01

Bowen theory as a way of thinking, understanding, and observing anxious escalations of emotionality has a contribution to make in the understanding of societal regression. Currently this is seen in reactive posturing demonstrated in war that could be viewed as the end point of such an emotionally driven process.

This current global process, triggered by unspeakable acts of reactivity and triangulation, provides an opportunity to evaluate national differentiation, “sibling positioning” in the international family as well as the emotional process immediately in each nation, what is projected, and what is/has been projected over time.

The question remains, however, what is the anxiety that drives such to this kind of end point. “The anxiety that starts regression appears to be related more to a disharmony between man and nature than to disharmony between man and his fellow man, such as war.” (Bowen, Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, p.279)

One idea may be that this process we are now experiencing is the end point of such a disharmony. Human survival issues involve clean air, water, food‹-a need for shelter and clothing. At the moment, there seems to be a global perception that all of these are or could be threatened.

Differentiation would point in the direction of individual, responsible development of these necessities not only nationally, but as family units, carefully planning for what is needed for sustainability--economic viability, environmental soundness, respectfulness and justice. In short, a kind of life style focused on responsible relationships rather than driven by consumerism.

Had the American people focused on sustainability, would we have so desperately needed oil to drive more cars and to heat more oversized homes, to haul more produce across the nation to eat more huge servings of always-in-season-whatever-we wanted. Had American people focused on sustainability, what would we be doing now?

How do we downsize, define personally, and live out of a principle of sustainability in harmony with nature, taking only what we can use wisely, and mind our OWN business? How do we manage survival anxiety now? What is real and what is perceived?

LeAnn Howard, LSCSW

The events of September 11 have challenged thoughtful individuals to bring complex thinking to societal and international events at a time of heightened anxiety on a global scale. Mass media reports are available 24 hours per day. Historians, experts on the Middle East, journalists, leaders from the United States and around the world are asked to comment on present and potential danger. Military strategy, preparations for biological warfare, recommendations to “stay alert” fill the airwaves.

Bowen theory invites a broader perspective at a time of high emotionality. Bowen theory suggests that an anxiety process in the human family and society can begin to drive fundamental patterns giving rise to symptoms. When anxiety is very high national and international decisions are made which address immediate threats while ignoring broader processes. The immediate threat is addressed and long term background processes go unaddressed.

The concept of societal process concerns the human as a biological being anxiously responding to rising population and diminishing resources. Dr. Bowen stated, Our society is oriented to the use of cause-and-effect thinking and instituting crash solutions directed at symptoms which lull people into the belief the problem is solved. Man’s disharmony with his environment is a long-term evolutionary process and if it continues man may exterminate himself. Man is not going to change the environment enough to correct the disharmony, and the ultimate change will require an order of change in man he is not yet able to contemplate. (Bowen 1973)

A growing body of work articulates the ecological history of the human through vast distances of time and geography to tell a factual story of the ecological impact of the human. In a recent book on the ecological history of North America, Tim Flannery discusses the opening of the North American frontier in 1607 to the current closing of the frontier. Flannery states, North America’s pre-eminence has come about because the resources of a rich middle-sized continent have been mined to provide a capital base that is the envy of the rest of the world. The whole world has become part of the frontier that opened in North America, and we will all feel the effect of its closure. (Flannery 2001) Flannery suggests that a society of frontier over-exploitation lies at the heart of North American society.

With the development of rapid technology and a global world the American society is reaching into every part of the world. The closing of the last frontier raises the anxiety of citizens of the world. An immediate focus on terrorist threats or a broader focus on the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism, continuing Middle East conflict, tensions between India and Pakistan, the presence of the United States in Saudia Arabia does not go far enough.

It is important to place all cultures and societies within the frame of an increasingly populated world where diminishing resources, impoverished soils, limits of food production, extinction of species are influencing us all. Longer term solutions will include a complex understanding of historical processes between nations, refined relationships skills on a national and international level, and long term efforts toward ecological responsibility.

The United States holds a functional leadership role within the international community. The United States can take the lead in understanding complex triangular processes among nations as well as understanding the constraints of the closing frontier. The broadest possible context for engaging the current and long term processes will promote the most solid long term prospects for human functioning and survival.

Eric Mikelait

When I first began therapy I told my therapist how much my mother upset me and he calmly suggested the idea of allowing her to be exactly who she needs to be while I worked on being the best that I can be in her presence. Other mental health professionals had told me to speak up for myself--to be assertive--and, if that didn’t work, to keep away from the troubling other person.

My therapist was now suggesting spending more time with my mother (not less) and to work on myself and get off of her. I damned him under my breath but knew that the proposition made perfect sense. The effort produced immediate positive results--so much so, that I began further training at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family- the epicenter of the wonderful theory that had influenced my therapist.

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit in the late sixties. Back then, as now, the world appeared to be falling apart at the seams. I remember my father nailing our back door shut and keeping a shotgun ready at all times. We watched a continual stream of shadows move across our back lawn from cargo planes carrying thousands of troops sent in to quell the Detroit riots. Off in the distance, smoke billowed from a hotel on fire. It looked like the beginning of the end.

Bowen theory has provided me with an orientation on how to handle overwhelming situations. The thing I try to do most is stay on track with who I am. Fires will be set, buildings destroyed, lives lost-- and, yet, I will stay focused on who I am and the contribution I hope to make to this world. I have a clear idea on what I want to accomplish as a writer, and as a therapist. I will stay on track with these goals despite the news of the day.

When it comes to “enemies,” I know how close I came to converting my own mother into an enemy--somebody to avoid at all costs. I could have been out there digging foxholes with all the other people hiding out from their families. Instead, I sought a different path, and somehow that other person began to make sense to me. I did not need to retaliate.