Susan's Case Study

In this assignment, I had the opportunity to select one family system from a menu of choices and therefore, I chose Susan’s family. This assignment will provide an opportunity to demonstrate my ability to apply knowledge to understand Susan’s environment, to collect, organize and interpret Susan’s date, and to assess Susan’s strengths and limitations. The index person is Susan and the circumstances which brought her into services was she suffers from chronic headaches and is hoping that counseling will help her improve her well-being. She first sought help for headaches in 1971, but she is continuously getting headaches more often and came in to get help again because she does not want to live like this anymore.

It is indicated that identify

patterns I observe in the family system that appear to be present in more than one generation is the indication that Susan is the 4th generation of women suffering from chronic headaches. For example, Susan’s mother named Katherine took pills for headaches. Also, Katherine’s mother suffered from headaches as did Katherine’s maternal grandmother. Furthermore, it is indicated that Susan’s father, named Andrew Sr.’s father abused alcohol as well as Susan’s mother named Katherine’s father abused alcohol. As a result, both of Susan’s grandfathers on both sides abused alcohol. There was been two times the family has wanted to move away because they wanted “to start over”. The first time the family moved to California, roughly 2,000 miles away from their Ohio home. It is indicated that the purpose of the move was so Susan’s father who is named is Andrew Sr. could go into business with his brother-in-law. The other time it is indicated was the family moved was in 1945 to Ohio “to start over”. Before, this move Andrew Sr.’s father suffered from a stroke and died one year later and also Susan’s oldest sister contracted polio and was in an iron lung for several months. Also Susan’s parents were both raised by someone else in the family. For example, Katherine was raised, primarily, in her maternal grandparents’ home and Andrew Sr. was raised mostly by his paternal aunt and his sister. Additionally, it is indicated that Katherine and Andrew are the youngest children in their family. Therefore, there is no indication of divorce in the family until Sharon’s divorce. Also Sharon and Susan both had significant others that were a negative influence on their life. As a result, Susan’s parent disowned her for moving in with her boyfriend while in college and Sharon and her husband were arrested for drug dealing, however her parents bailed her out of jail. Therefore, it is indicated that Susan’s father named Andrew Sr. and his brother-in-law’s business failed and similarity, it is indicated that Andrew’s Sr. father lost most of the family’s money. As a result, both of Andrew’s Sr. father and Andrew lost money.
The people who make up various subsystems is Susan and her husband who were married in 1974.

Susan’s parents, Andrew Sr. and Katherine are a married couple who have five children; Ellen who was born in 1942, Sarah who was born 1948 and died in 1952 at the age of four, Andrew Jr. who was born 1946, Sharon who was born in 1951, Susan who was born in 1953, and Roger who was born in 1958. Andrew Jr. is married and has two daughters. Sharon is in her second marriage after her first ended in divorce. Sharon has one daughter from each marriage. Andrew’s parents had five children and Katherine’s parent had two children. When Susan began living with her boyfriend it influenced her parents’ decision to disown her. However, Sharon and her husband were arrested for drug dealing, however her parents bailed her out of jail. Therefore, there is a hypotheses that Sharon and Susan do not get along because of the indication that their parents disowned Susan. It is indicated that when Sharon and Susan were younger they played complementary roles. For example, Susan was the “good” child while Sharon became the “loser”. As a result, is was during those years that Katherine described Susan as her “one joy” in the midst of everything else that was going wrong. It is indicated that a hypotheses is that there may be some tension between the two sisters because Susan was the favorite child and now it appears that Sharon is the favorite child. Also, Susan’s parents were both raised by someone else in

the family. Therefore, there is indication that there may be some tension between the families because the original parents did not raise their own younger child. Also, it appears that Andrew and his brother-in-law are close because they start a business together and even when it failed the brother-in-law (business partner) moved in with the family. Also Andrew Sr.’s father moved in with the family at this time and there is an indication that Andrew Sr. is close with his father. Therefore, Andrew’s Sr.’s father lost most of the family money in 1929 and also abused alcohol so there may have been some tension in that relationship, however, there is indication that they resolve their problems because they ended up living together.
The concept/element I chose from the Bowen Family Systems theory is Emotional Triangles which is a three-person relationship system.

It is indicated that two-person system is unstable because it tolerates little tension before involving a third person. A triangle can contain much more tension without involving another person because the tension can shift around three relationships. Therefore, how it applies to my selected family system is it is indicated that when Sharon and Susan were younger they played complementary roles. For example, Susan was the “good” child while Sharon became the “loser”. As a result, is was during those years that Katherine described Susan as her “one joy” in the midst of everything else that was going wrong. Therefore, there is indication that Susan was the favorite child. However, that all changed when Susan began living with her boyfriend because it influenced her parents’ decision to disown her. However, Sharon and her husband were arrested for drug dealing, however her parents bailed her out of jail. Therefore, there is a hypotheses that Sharon and Susan did not get along growing up because of the indication of Susan being the favorite child growing up. As a result the sisters do not get along now because their roles have changed. There is indication that parents but specially the mother has caused the tension between the sisters because of picking the favorite child in the

family.