Case Analysis Application Paper

Case Analysis Application Paper

Introduction to Family System

Psychiatrists and Therapists started to explore the dynamics of a family life after Second World War (Rabstejnek, 2012). Generally, people feel very distant or separate from their family members. Psychiatrists call it a feeling, not a fact. Murray Bowen illustrates that, often, family members so intensely affect each other's feelings, thoughts and actions that it seems as people are living under a single “emotional skin”. Set of people living in a family look for each other's mere attention, support and approval and are also reactive to each other's needs and expectations. Such reactivity and connectedness make the family functioning of members mutually dependent to each other. A change in the actions of a person triggers a reciprocal change in the other person's actions. The degree of interdependency can vary from family to family, but it is always present to some extent.

Human beings do not live in a vacuum. People live, work, go to office/school and play with other people. According to the anthropologists, one of the most peculiar tendencies of human beings, which distinguish it from other animals, is that they are social animals. The most effective and universal social group, which shapes the overall behavior of an individual is, family.

Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory, which was then, shortened to “Bowen Theory”, is a theory presented by Murray Bowen, states that, a family is a unit of interdependent individuals. He contributed some significant concepts to Psychiatry (McEvoy, 2008). They include, Emotional Fusion and Differentiation of Self, Triangles, Nuclear Family Emotional System, Emotional Cutoff, Sibling Positions and Multi Generational Transmission Process.

Scenario

John, his wife Mindy, and their three children, all under age seven, are having family arguments about family rules, daily activities, and dinner choices. John appears to be impatient, dizzy, unfocused, and often smells of alcohol. Mindy ignores John, tries to avoid him, and is cold towards him. The children are rude and are getting into fights with other children during class and at recess. One child, age six, has started trash can fires at school, and he also tried to stab another student with a pair of scissors. When asked why he is starting fires and fighting with others, the child states that his parents fight, so he believes he can fight too.

What are the symptoms in this family that suggest a problem with the family system?

When many individuals in a very close and intimate environment, such as a family, people begin to set several limits on each other. While living along in a family, there is an acceptable range of set limits, which is tolerable. When individuals cross those limits or threaten the limits by their actions or violating roles and rules in a family, family members reciprocate and try to reestablish and redesign the limits and try to preserve the stability of the family system. All members of the family tend to participate in this process by maintaining stability (Allen, ...