defining a self
This concept represents the application of Bowen theory to daily living in all areas of life through a long-term effort to live the principles of differentiation. Differentiation as a process involves...
View Articleemotional cut-off
Distancing is one of the hard-wired coping mechanisms for dealing with real or imagined threats to one’s well-being. We know it most stereotypically as the flight component of the stress response. It...
View Articlesibling position
One of the significant factors shaping the functioning of individual family members is their sibling position. Dr. Bowen incorporated the research on sibling position done by the late Dr. Walter Toman,...
View Articlemultigenerational family emotional process
This concept describes the way in which level of self is non-genetically passed from one generation to the next. When the child who is the most caught up in the family projection process leaves home,...
View Articlenuclear family projection process
When parents are unable to deal with their undifferentiation and its accompanying anxiety between themselves, one (or more) of the children can be pulled into the tension in a way that, over time,...
View Articlenuclear family emotional process
This concept has two important dimensions to it: 1) the nuclear family and 2) the emotional process. emotional process This refers to the automatic, hard-wired sensitivity and accompanying anxiety...
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triangles
One of Bowen’s observations took centre stage in his understanding of humans as fundamentally systemic in nature. He watched the ever-present shifting of anxiety and roles within the basic unit of...
View Articlechronic anxiety
Chronic anxiety refers to the habitual, automatic ways humans react when perceiving a life-situation, most often a relationship interaction, as threatening. One may not be aware of feeling threatened....
View Articleemotional system
The concept of an emotional system is core to understanding Bowen theory. The term ‘emotional’ is familiar to most people. However, its meaning is different in Bowen theory than in its usage in...
View Articledifferentiation
The term differentiation comes from biology. It is the scientific concept that most closely matches the processes Dr. Bowen was observing within families and between families. People vary across a...
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