This accessible text examines how the science of autonomy and adaptation informs all family therapy approaches and discusses how clinicians can use this science to improve their practice. Uniquely focussing on how to integrate science as well as theory into clinical practice, the book provides an overview of science from multiple domains and ties it to family systems theory through the key framework of autonomy and adaptation. Drawing on research from genetics, physiology, emotion regulation, attachment, and triangulation, chapters demonstrate how a comprehensive science-informed theory of family systems can be applied to a range of problematic family patterns. The text also explores self-of-the-therapist work and considers how autonomy and attachment are connected to systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Supported throughout by practical case examples, as well as questions for consideration, chapter summaries, and resource lists to further engage the reader, The Science of Family Systems Theory is an essential textbook for marriage and family therapy students as well as mental health professionals working with families.

This accessible text examines how the science of autonomy and adaptation informs all family therapy approaches and discusses how clinicians can use this science to improve their practice. Uniquely focussing on how to integrate science as well as theory into clinical practice, the book provides an overview of science from multiple domains and ties it to family systems theory through the key framework of autonomy and adaptation. Drawing on research from genetics, physiology, emotion regulation, attachment, and triangulation, chapters demonstrate how a comprehensive science-informed theory of family systems can be applied to a range of problematic family patterns. The text also explores self-of-the-therapist work and considers how autonomy and attachment are connected to systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Supported throughout by practical case examples, as well as questions for consideration, chapter summaries, and resource lists to further engage the reader, The Science of Family Systems Theory is an essential textbook for marriage and family therapy students as well as mental health professionals working with families.

The Family Emotional System: An Integrative Concept for Theory, Science, and Practice presents an ongoing dialogue among scientists, family investigators, and clinicians related to a natural systems view of the family and human behavior that has been occurring over several decades. The concept of the family as an emotional system, as defined in Bowen theory, is presented as the principal integrative concept underlying this dialogue and an effort to move toward a science of human behavior. As a natural system, the family forms the immediate and most important context for individual development, and may be the most central and important environment shaping brain development across the lifetime of the individual. This book explains how the family system can serve as an integrative framework within which specific factual discoveries and hypotheses from many areas of science can be brought together and understood as various manifestations of a coherent whole. The Family Emotional System provides understanding of what is entailed in conceptualizing the family as an emotional system, a sense of the breadth and depth of knowledge the sciences are contributing to this effort, and examples of how this theoretical framework contributes to family research and practice. The richness and excitement occurring in the ongoing dialogue between scientists and Bowen family systems practitioners and researchers is captured along with the promise it holds for the study of human behavior.

"This accessible text examines how the science of autonomy and adaptation inform all family therapy approaches and discusses how clinicians can use this science to improve their practice. Supported throughout by practical case examples, as well as questions for consideration, chapter summaries, and resource lists to further engage the reader, The Science of Family Systems is an essential textbook for marriage and family therapy students as well as mental health professionals working with families"--

In a single volume, Bringing Systems Thinking to Life: Expanding the Horizons for Bowen Family Systems Theory presents the extraordinary diversity and breadth of Bowen theory applications that address human functioning in various relationship systems across a broad spectrum of professions, disciplines, cultures, and nations. Providing three chapters of never-before-published material by Dr. Bowen, the book also demonstrates the transcendent nature and versatility of Bowen theory-based social assessment and its extension into fields of study and practice far beyond the original psychiatric context in which it was first formulated including social work, psychology, nursing, education, literary studies, pastoral care and counseling, sociology, business and management, leadership studies, distance learning, ecological science, and evolutionary biology. Providing ample evidence that Bowen theory has joined that elite class of theories that have enjoyed broad application to social phenomena while lending credibility to the claim that Bowen theory is one of the previous and current centuries’ most significant social-behavioral theories. More than a “resource manual” for Bowen theory enthusiasts, this book helps put a new great theory on the intellectual landscape.

When Bowen was a student and practitioner of classical psychoanalysis at the Menninger Clinic, he became engrossed in understanding the process of schizophrenia and its relationship to mother-child symbiosis. Between the years 1950 and 1959, at Menninger and later at the National Institute of Mental Health (as first chief of family studies), he worked clinically with over 500 schizophrenic families. This extensive experience was a time of fruition for his thinking as he began to conceptualize human behavior as emerging from within the context of a family system. Later, at Georgetown University Medical School, Bowen worked to extend the application of his ideas to the neurotic family system. Initially he saw his work as an amplification and modification of Freudian theory, but later viewed it as an evolutionary step toward understanding human beings as functioning within their primary networkDtheir family. One of the most renowned theorist and therapist in the field of family work, this book encompasses the breadth and depth of Bowen's contributions. It presents the evolution of Bowen's Family Theory from his earliest essays on schizophrenic families and their treatment, through the development of his concepts of triangulation, intergenerational conflict and societal regression, and culminating in his brilliant exploration of the differentiation of one's self in one's family of origin.

The concepts of Murray Bowen, one of the founders of family therapy and the originator of family systems theory, are brought together here in an integrative fashion. Michael Kerr (who worked with Bowen for many years) and Bowen propose that the enormously complex task of evaluating a clinical family can be orderly when it is grounded in family systems theory. Using family diagrams and case studies, the book is devoted to an elegant explication of Bowen theory, which analyzes multigenerational family relationships and conceptualizes the family as an emotional unit or as a network of interlocking relationships, not only among the family members, but also among biological, psychological, and sociological processes. Bowen’s persistent inquiry and devotion to family observation, in spite of obstacles and frustrations, have resulted in a theory that has radically changed our ways of looking at all behavior.

The Handbook of Bowen Family Systems Theory and Research Methods presents innovative approaches on a range of issues inherent in family research and discusses the links between theory, data collection, and data analysis based on Bowen family systems theory. This multi-authored volume discusses core issues within family systems theory, including anxiety, stress, emotional cutoff, differentiation of self, multigenerational transmission process, and nuclear family emotional process. Chapters also examine related constructs in the research literature such as adaptation, resilience, social support, social networks, and intergenerational family relations. Readers will be able to view theoretical and methodological issues from the perspective of Bowen theory and develop a clearer knowledge of ways to navigate the challenges faced when studying individual, familial, and societal problems. An essential resource for clinicians and researchers in the social and natural sciences, the Handbook of Bowen Family Systems Theory and Research Methods provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the application of Bowen theory to family practice and family research.

This accessible text examines how the science of autonomy and adaptation informs all family therapy approaches and discusses how clinicians can use this science to improve their practice. Uniquely focussing on how to integrate science as well as theory into clinical practice, the book provides an overview of science from multiple domains and ties it to family systems theory through the key framework of autonomy and adaptation. Drawing on research from genetics, physiology, emotion regulation, attachment, and triangulation, chapters demonstrate how a comprehensive science-informed theory of family systems can be applied to a range of problematic family patterns. The text also explores self-of-the-therapist work and considers how autonomy and attachment are connected to systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Supported throughout by practical case examples, as well as questions for consideration, chapter summaries, and resource lists to further engage the reader, The Science of Family Systems Theory is an essential textbook for marriage and family therapy students as well as mental health professionals working with families.

One look inside Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory, and you’ll see that your most current clinical dilemmas are not as difficult to solve as you think. You’ll find plenty of information to assist you in treating a vast audience of populations--the elderly, college students, troubled couples, remarried families, and children with severe medical problems. You’ll also find that you’re able to apply the Bowen systems theory to nearly every clinical situation--emotional dysfunction in children, alcoholism, incest, divorce, depression, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory is an ideal companion for family therapists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, and counselors. You’ll find your working comprehension of Murray Bowen’s work will grow, and you’ll become more adept at applying what you read in real-life clinical situations, especially in these related areas: family systems assessment based on the Bowen Theory marital fusion and differentiation bridging emotional cut-off from a former spouse dealing with a child-focused divorce case studies of alcoholism and family systems Clinical Applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory is the first book to collect, illustrate, and walk you through a full application of this highly effective treatment method in any number of clinical settings. Both beginning and experienced therapists will find interesting reading in the history of the theory, and the result will be interested clients who begin to create functional, thriving personal histories for themselves.