Family Genogram Essay

Genograms
I learned that genograms are used as a way to visualize family relationships and understand how and why family members react to each other in certain ways. I noticed, in my genogram, domestic abuse was pattern in my aunt and cousin’s relationships. One would assume that the domestic abuse stemmed from my grandparents’ relationship. However, there was no abuse in their relationship. While I was creating this genogram, I questioned where this pattern actually started. I was always made aware of the reasonings I am hesitating to marry my fiancé. I can now understand why phonograms are so valuable to a psychologist. It can explain where patterns started, why an individual has certain characteristics, and why conflict occurs in a family.

However, some subjects would have been too uncomfortable to talk about. As a result, I just used my memory. Also, I wanted to include my grandparents’ parents, but I could not keep up with all their offspring and families. I wanted to add them because I was really curious about the domestic abuse pattern. I guess that will be for another time. With this genogram, it was very apparent the conflict started with my grandparents and their children. Although conflict is visual in this project, the geneogram does not show traits that my family have. The lines used are more for conflict, which is how they behaved with each other. My grandparents and aunt had several conflicts, because my aunt felt they treated her sister better than her. This conflict was felt throughout all of their relationships.
My grandmother and her children were very stubborn and each felt they were right, so this conflict was never solved. As a result, my mother and my aunt have a very conflicted relationship. This caused me to be distant from my aunt and cousins as