Introduction

Murray Bowen (1913- 1990) was the first and only psychiatrist to describe a theory explaining human behavior. He trained at Menninger and in 1954, Bowen became the first director of the Family Division at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). His research record and theory are well known.

Below you will find 1) a brief summery of his theory and then 2) a short description of his career along with his CV. 

Bowen family systems theory is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit.  

Bowen believed that the emotional systems that govern human relationships had evolved over millions of years. He postulated that differentiation (level of emotional maturity) among family members produced variation, as individuals became more of less mature from one generation to the next.

In cases where multi-generational transmission, differentiation among family members becomes progressively lower, this can also generate clinical symptoms.

The goal of “Extended Family Systems Therapy” is to increase individual family members level of differentiation by the motivation of those who are capable of being in better emotional contact with those in the nuclear and extended family. This effort  requires knowledge of the emotional system and how to mange and define self in relationships.

The cornerstone of Bowen theory is the 8 interlocking concepts that influence the counterbalance between togetherness and individuality. No one concept can be explained by another concept.  No one concept can be eliminated or isolated from Bowen theory.  

Emotional, biological and environmental influences are considered as the individual adapts within the family unit over the generations.

The 8 basic concepts of Bowen’s family systems theory are:

1.      Levels of differentiation of self Families and social groups affect how people think, feel, and act, but individuals vary in their susceptibility to “group think”. Also, groups vary in the amount of pressure they exert for conformity. The less developed a person’s “self,” the more impact others have on his functioning and the more he tries to control the functioning of others. Bowen developed a scale to measure differentiation of self.

2.      The nuclear family This concept describes 4 relationship patterns that manage anxiety, marital conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of one or more children, emotional distance) that govern where problems develop in a family. 

3.      Family projection process This concept describes the way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child. Some parents have great trouble separating from the child. They imagine how the child is, rather than having a realistic appraisal of the child.  Relationship problems that most negatively affect a child’s life are a heightened need for attention and approval, difficulty dealing with expectations, the tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for other’s happiness, and acting impulsively to relieve the anxiety of the moment, rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully. 

4.      Multigenerational transmission process This concept describes how small differences in the levels of differentiation between parents and their offspring lead over many generations to marked differences in differentiation among the members of a multigenerational family. The way people relate to one another creates differences, which are transmitted across generations. People are sensitive and react to the absence or presence of relationships, to information about this moment, the future and or the past, and this, along with our basic genetic inheritance, interacts to shape an individual’s “self.” 

5.      Sibling position Bowen theory incorporates psychologist Walter Toman’s work relating to sibling position. People who grow up in the same sibling position have important common characteristics. For example, oldest children tend to gravitate to leadership positions and youngest children often prefer to be followers, unless the parents disappointed them.  Toman’s research showed that spouses’ sibling positions when mismatched often affect the chance of divorcing. 

6.      Triangles A triangle is a three-person relationship system. It is considered the triangle as the “molecule” of larger emotional systems, as it is the smallest stable relationship system. A triangle can manage more tension than a 2-person relationship as tension shifts among the three. Triangles can exert social control by putting one on the outside or bring in an outsider when tension escalates between two. Increasing the number of triangles can also stabilize spreading tension. Marital therapy uses the triangle to provide a neutral third party capable of relating well to both sides of a conflict. 

 7.      Emotional cut off People sometimes manage their unresolved emotional issues with parents, siblings, and other family members by reducing or totally cutting off emotional contact with them. This resolves nothing and risks making new relationships too important.

8.      Societal emotional process This concept describes how the emotional system governs behavior on a societal level, similar to that within a family, which promotes both progressive and regressive periods in a society. 

This summery was written by Laura Martin with a few ideas by Andrea Schara 

Who was Murray Bowen, M.D.?

Following medical training, Murray Bowen served five years of active duty with the Army during World War II, 1941-1946. He served in the United States and Europe, rising from the rank of Lieutenant to Major. He had been accepted for a fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic to begin after military service, but Bowen’s wartime experiences resulted in a change of interest from surgery to psychiatry. During his study of psychiatry at The Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas from 1946-1954, Bowen read extensively in biology and the study of evolution.  His changing view of human functioning led to development of a research project at the National Institute of Mental Health in which 18 families with a schizophrenic member were studied over a five-year period. Later he went to Georgetown University where he developed Bowen Family Systems Theory.

 

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Dr. Bowen was a master of paradox. His understanding of the emotional processes in his own family distinguished him from all others in psychiatry. Few people really understood what he accomplished by studying his own family and then placing his theory in the midst of evolutionary biology.

Bowen’s first  paper about how he unearthed the emotional process in his own family was the anonymous paper. It was first presented to a shocked audience of psychotherapist in 1967. This marked a new beginning for the emerging field known as family psychotherapy. Dr. Bowen, a psychiatrist, actually talked about his functioning in his own family.

While at Menninger he decided that Freudian Theory would not pass muster in the world of science. He saw a way through the problems of psychiatry which was stuck in being labled a soft science. Bowen knew that humans are embedded in a soft, subjective world. But he also realized that there are many other facts about the human condition that might just make human behavior a bit more predictable. People tend to repeat patterns. You may notice this about yourself.

Theoretically Bowen made the decision to connect the emotional forces that automatically directed interpersonal relationships to fit with evolutionary processes rather than to focus on individual factors, such as personality or traits.

To use an analogy, system’s thinkers were no longer were digging up the dirt within the earth (the individual) to understand behavior.

Freud focused on the problem within one person.

Bowen opened up the lens to see how the earth was affected by other planets.

Freud’s idea, the analysis of the self, had evolved to an analysis of one’s own functioning in the family relationship system.

Freuds ideas on transferece and counter transefere would stand the test of time said Dr.Bowen. But making behavior a function of subjective causes, arrived at through layers of interpertation, probably would not hold up in any life science.

Dr. Bowen was trained in psychoanalysis at the Menninger Institute in Topeka,Kansas. Originally he had intended to enter the area of cardiac surgery but during his service in WW II he noted that physical illness seemed to be less of a problem than mental breakdowns. Therfore he knew that herein lay the greatest challenge to mankind’s future progress. This awareness was thus the driving force for him to change his specialty from surgery to psychiatry.

After years of studying psychoanalysis he stated that Freudian theory was unable to explain mental illness from a factual basis.

Analysis relied on the interpretation of behavior based on conflicts in the individual and then between the individual and the culture.

Freud offered interesting insights and a factual accounting of the actions and reaction in an intense two person relationship. But Freud’s theory could not lead to a fact based understanding of human behavior.

It is unknown just where Dr. Bowen’s avid interest in science came from. Perhaps part of his education as a physician instilled in him the wish to develop knowledge and thus contribute to the overall progress of society.

Developing and testing a comprehensive theory of human behavior became an essential part of Dr. Bowen’s life mission. (please see CV of Dr. Bowen.)

Dr. Bowen grew up in a small town, Waverly, Tennessee. His father was the mayor of the town and he also ran the local funeral home and several stores.

Perhaps Dr. Bowen early on could see the differences in families which were able to deal with the most difficult facts of life, that is, death.

Whatever the reason, Dr. Bowen developed his theory to explain human behavior by a systematic orientation to functional facts and science.

This was in stark contrast to Freud’s descriptions of the internal motives operating in the minds of individuals. Freud wrote well and used logical, mental models to explain human conflicts and motives. Psychoanalysis did strive to be scientific. However, once the mind of man was the object of study and associations and interpretations were the handmaidens, there were few facts that could form a scientific base.

Freud listened as the mind of man unfolded the hidden desires and frustrations of life. His interpretations were based in the world of literature and his powerful ideas were translated as stories that are remembered and cherished for their insights.

The therapist as a nonjudgmental listener who could provide a safe and healing experience has became the essential part of all psychoanalytic training.

Despite progress there is still a lack of basic understanding and predictability to make psychiatry into a true science. The fact that a two-person relationship will go through predictable changes, that is, transference, makes it a functional fact. When patterns repeat often enough, they can be known as facts.

It takes a long time for facts to be accepted as a science. Even evolutionary theory is still not a universally accepted fact.

Observing, listening and seeing relationship patterns may allow one to see a partial linkage with other species but this linkage is limited to detailing how forces operate in a colony or in a social unit.

The rules within each species differ. The details of the behavior around reproduction, parenting, cooperating, aggression or selfishness may change from one species to another. Each species has a version of maternal and paternal behavior that persists over time.

The parts of the brain that appear to control these basic behaviors are relatively similar across species. The genetics are close enough to allow us to test drugs for later use on humans, on many of these other so-called lower forms of life. The use of a systems perspective allows us to see the forces in nature.

Bowen theory can exchange information with all specialties interested in the growth and development of biological systems. Humans are as vulnerable as are-other social animals in regard to the maintenance of healthy relationships over the generations.

Bowen spent his life developing his theory, which details the “rules” of the human emotional system. He understood that few people could see how they were influenced by three or four generations of an emotionally interconnected family system. Bowen saw that the emoitional forces connect each of us to the forces that exist even in cellular life.

Offical Bio by Murray Bowen, M.D.

Date and Place of Birth: January 31, 1913, Waverly, Tennessee

College: University of Tennessee, Knoxville, B.S. 1934

Medical School: University of Tennessee Medical School, Memphis, MD 1937

Family Background: Family in Middle Tennessee since the Revolution. Oldest of five. Father died in 1974 at 87. Mother died in 1982 at 95. All siblings are living. Married to second of three daughters. Four children, ages 42 to 37.

Internships: Bellevue Hospital, New York City, 1938; Grasslands Hospital, Valhalla, New York, 1939-41.

Military Training: Five years active duty with Army, 1941-46, in the United States and Europe. Rank: 1st Lt. to Major. Had been accepted for fellowship in surgery at Mayo Clinic to begin after military service. Interest changed from surgery to psychiatry during WW 11.

Psychiatric Training and Experience:

Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas. 1946-1954. Fellowship in psychiatry, personal psychoanalysis, and on staff. Background interest in science led to a new theory, which uses evolution and systems ideas to replace Freud. Enough promise for the theory to seek full-time research in a neutral center.

National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, 1954-1959. Previous years on theory made research go rapidly. Live-in parents, with one adult schizophrenic child, provided a dimension for all children. Family therapy was a by-product of theory. It began the first year, about two years before it was known nationally. Concepts integrated with the new theory, emerged one after the other. None had previously been described in the literature, and none could have been “seen” with Freudian theory. They are now known as the “Bowen Theory.” Long-term research terminated by Institute for short-term research studies.

Georgetown University Medical Center. Washington, DC 1959 – present. Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Director of Family Programs, and founder of a Family Center. Half-time research and teaching. Each concept was extended, and woven into physical, emotional, and social illness. It has already gone far beyond another family systems theory. Through association with medicine, knowledge has been extended to every medical specialty, and even the prodromal states that precede medical diagnoses. The future is promising. As long as psychiatry exists to diagnose and treat emotional illness, its potential is limited. The theory is directed to human life rather than symptomatic cubicles. National popularity indicates the theory will eventually replace Freudian thinking. It may well contribute more to all of medicine than to psychiatry alone. At Georgetown since 1959.

Other Faculty Appointments and Consultantships. Visiting Professor in a variety of medical schools. More permanent included the University of Maryland, 1956-1963; and part-time Professor and Chairman, Division of Family and Social Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, 1964-1978. Closed-circuit television in Richmond was used to integrate family therapy with the larger theory.

Current Appointments and Activities. Half-time, Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center, and Director, Georgetown University Family Center, 1959 to present. Private practice, parttime, family psychotherapy, Chevy Chase, Maryland, 1954 to present,

Organizations. List limited to those with a potential interest in a single theory. American Psychiatric Association, Life Fellow; American Orthopsychiatric Association, Life Fellow; Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Life Member; Diplomate in Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1961; American Family Therapy Association, Terminated membership 1989 after two consecutive terms as first President.

Biographies. Listed in Membership Directories. American Psychiatric Association, since 1950; Directory of Medical Specialists, since 1952; American Men of Medicine, 1961; World Who’s Who in Science, 1700 B.C. to 1966 A.D. (3700 years in one volume), 1966; International Biography, since 1968; Personalities of the South, since 1976; Who’s Who in America, 1978.

Recent Awards and Recognition.

Originator and First President, American Family Therapy Association, 1978-1982.

Alumnus of the Year, Menninger Foundation, June 1985.

Faculty, Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference, Erickson Foundation, Phoenix, December 1985.

Graduation Speaker, Menninger School of Psychiatry, June 1986.

Governor’s Certificate, Tennessee Homecoming ‘86, Knoxville, 1986 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, October 1986.

Publications. About fifty papers, book chapters, and monographs based on new theory of human behavior. The most important ones are in my book, Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, Jason Aronson, Inc., publisher, Northvale, NJ, 1978, which contains twenty years of theory. Other papers are referenced in the book. The past ten years, most of the concepts have been described in detail in about twenty videotapes. A list of tapes, both theoretical and clinical, are available at the Georgetown University Hospital.

Practical Issues. New concepts introduced by the “Bowen Theory” include evolution to replace most of Freud; the part of Freud that is relatively scientific; and natural systems theory to combine the two. Numerous variables prevent clear writing when the reader is “hearing” Freud. The differentiation of self and emotional systems are essential for the theory. Therapists use the correct words, but use their own heads to interpret meaning. Beyond that, the theory includes the family diagram; a summary of a differentiation scale; triangles; fusion; cut-offs; projection of immaturity to succeeding generations, to minorities, or to the weakest link in the chain; extended family patterns; emotional objectivity; the multigenerational transmission process; sibling position; the extension of family process to work and social systems; societal regression; and a precise integration of the amalgam which is the family. Most patients and clients can change themselves if given a chance. Most therapists are trying so hard to be therapeutic, they cannot “think” theory. Good therapy is determined by the way a theorist thinks about human problems. When the therapist cannot think theory, the theoretical gap is closed by some fixed version of Freud, the therapy is less efficient than it could be, and the therapist is vulnerable to becoming the author of yet another personal procedure.

Theoretical Future. The theory will probably replace Freudian Theory within the coming decades. There are indications it may influence the whole of medicine, more than psychiatry and mental health. When theorists have become aware of its potential, the theory may move on to a “science like” baseline in which theory governs everything that occurs in the field. Good theory is never final. It can always be changed with new knowledge, but change is not frivolous or personally determined. It is interesting to guess what may have occurred by the middle of the 21st century.

Addresses: Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Hospital, 4380 MacArthur Blvd., NW, Washington, DC 20007, or 4903 DeRussey Parkway, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815.

Washington, D.C.

January 1990