Interlocking Concepts Of The Bowenian Theory

The Bowenian theory was compiled by Murray Bowen, an American psychiatrist. The Bowenian theory is based on the premise of two goals to help clients resolve their family issues. The first of which was intended to help clients keep their levels of anxiety to a minimum. His other goal in his theory was to increase each family member’s autonomy, or better known as a term he referred to as “differentiation.” Bowen debunked the idea that family members had to initiate confrontation in order to come to a resolution. The Bowenian theory is based on a total of eight interlocking concepts. Bowen felt it necessary that when utilizing his theory in counseling sessions that the session is more cognitive controlled than based off of emotion.
Bowen’s Theory:

Bowen's theory also placed a great emphasis on the concept of self-differentiation. Self-differentiation begins with one individual and progresses into the transforming of relationships within the entire family system. Self-differentiation can best be defined as an individual's ability to differentiate his/her intellectual and emotional functioning while maintaining autonomy from the emotional pressures of others and is able to function on the basis of reasoned principles as opposed to reactive, even in the face of anxiety (Skowran & Friedlander, 1998 ). The Bowenian theory is based on the premise that problems do not lie solely on the individual but instead recognizes that the problems arise based on the role of the family’s emotional system over the past

According to Bowen, "the child may attempt to isolate themselves from the family of origin, take flight from the family when they leave home, and may attempt to do this by geographic relocation, through psychological barriers, such as not talking with family, or by believing they are free of family ties when in reality all they have done is broken contact" (Cook, 2007). When one cuts themselves off emotionally from their family of origin this often is an indication that one is making an effort to deal with unresolved fusion with one or both parents