1. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
PSY
410:
Individual
and
Family
Assessment—FALL
2012/2013
Family
Assessment
-­‐Bowen’s
Family
System
Theory-­‐
Prepared
for
Dr.
Man
Chung
Zayed
University,
Abu
Dhabi
Prepared
by
Mira
Jamal
M80000771
January
28,
2013

2. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
Murray
Bowen,
M.D.,
developed
the
family
system
theory;
which
views
the
family
as
an
“emotional
unit,”
and
involves
8
different
concepts
that
are
used
to
describe
the
complicated
interactions
and
relationships
within
the
family.
Bowen
believed
that
family
members
are
emotionally
connected
on
a
very
extreme
level,
which
means
they
all
have
an
affect
on
each
other’s
behavior
and
emotions.
Through
this
paper,
I
will
use
Murray
Bowen’s
family
system
theory
to
assess
and
understand
Asma’s
family.
In
addition,
I
will
include
my
own
criticisms
towards
this
theory,
and
later
discuss
the
problems
with
using
this
particular
theory
in
assessing
Asma’s
family.
Asma
was
born
into
a
family
system
that
includes
her
mother,
Fatima,
father,
Ahmad,
2
uncles,
Rashid
and
Hamad,
and
her
grandfather,
Mohammed,
all
under
the
same
roof.
Since
Asma
was
born,
her
mother
was
over-­‐powered
by
Asma’s
uncles
and
grandfather,
which
made
her
mother
anxious
all
the
time,
yet
dependant
on
everyone
else
to
help
raise
her
child.
When
Asma
was
3,
her
father
was
kicked
out
of
the
family
because
he
stole
from
them.
This
meant
that
Asma’s
parents
got
divorced,
and
she
did
not
see
her
father
until
she
was
18.
Asma’s
uncles
took
over
her
father’s
role,
and
became
father
figures.
When
Asma
was
7,
her
uncle
Rashid
and
grandfather
were
in
an
accident,
which
completely
paralyzed
her
grandfather
from
the
neck
down
and
damaged
Rashid’s
spine,
which
meant
he
could
no
longer
walk.
Her
mother
took
responsibility
of
caring
for
both
of
them;
meaning
Asma
was
no
longer
the
centre
of
attention
at
all
times.
Fatima
felt
guilty
about
her
daughter
not
having
a
father,
and
because
of
the
accident,
she
could
not
always
be
there
for
Asma.
She
would
try
to
make
up
for
it
by
always
giving
in
to
her
demands
of
attention
and
whatever
Asma
asked
for,
she
got!
Her
mother
was
scared
that
Asma
would
get
into
trouble
and
feel
neglected,
so
she
would
always
try
and
make
Asma
happy.
Asma
would
throw
tantrums
and
hit
her
mother,
as
she
would
never
get
in
trouble
for
it
and
eventually
got
what
she
was
screaming
about.
Fatima
would
throw
the
biggest
parties
for
Asma,
and
would
always
boast
about
her
daughter
to
other
people,
to
make
her
daughter
feel
special.
Asma
has
been
to
7
different
schools
throughout
her
education
years,
because
she
was
not
happy.
At
the
end
of
every
year,
her
mother
would
ask
Asma
if
she
was
happy
at
that
particular
school,
and
if
her
answer
was
no,
then
Fatima
would
put
her
into
another
one.
When
Asma
was
17,
she
became
depressed
and
started
going
for
therapy.
Her
mother
often
blamed
Asma’s
father
for
the
life
that
she
had,
and
would
cry
on
a
daily
basis.
Today
Asma
is
a
25
year-­‐old
lady,
who
is
financially
dependant
on
her
mother
and
uncles,
and
is
very
spoiled.
She
resents
her
uncles,
expects
to
get
whatever
she
desires,
and
acts
selfishly
with
her
decisions.
She
is
very
attached
to
her
boyfriend
and
expects
a
lot
from
him.
She
is
always
looking
for
wild
things
to
do,
but
has
the
ability
to
make
decisions
without
getting
her
own
emotions
involved.
Although
Asma
graduated
from
university
2
years
ago,
she
refuses
to
get
a
job.
Instead
she
is
traveling
the
world
and
when
she
does
come
home,
she
is
always
out.
Her
mother
is
always
stressed
out
and
worried
about
her
daughter,
and
she
turns
to
religion
to
make
herself
feel
better.

3. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
Triangles
Looking
at
Bowen’s
concept
of
triangles,
we
can
find
a
lot
of
them
in
Asma’s
family.
However,
since
her
family
involves
more
than
3
members
and
there
is
often
a
lot
of
tension,
we
can
find
an
interlocking
of
triangles.
With
the
above
diagram,
we
can
find
many
smaller
triangles
that
make
it
all
up.
The
first
triangle
is
Fatima,
Asma,
and
Ahmad.
When
Fatima
and
Ahmad
first
got
married,
they
were
a
tight
couple.
However,
when
Asma
was
added,
creating
a
triangle,
Fatima
would
often
avoid
the
tension
between
her
husband
and
herself
by
focusing
on
Asma.
This
eventually
lead
to
Fatima
and
Asma
having
a
close
relationship,
making
them
the
insiders
of
the
triangle,
and
left
Ahmed
as
the
outsider.
If
Asma
misbehaved,
Fatima
would
ask
the
father
to
interfere,
which
kept
Fatima
on
good
terms
with
her
daughter.
This
proves
Bowen’s
point
where
he
explains
that
people
try
to
maintain
a
close
relationship
while
trying
to
handle
anxiety
by
bringing
in
a
third
person
(Rabstejnek,
n.d.).
In
addition,
Fatima
also
kept
Ahmad
as
the
outsider
by
blaming
him
for
everything
that
would
go
wrong
in
their
lives.
This
made
Asma
view
her
father
as
a
distant
person
who
was
the
“enemy.”
However,
there
is
also
another
way
at
looking
at
the
triangles.
Looking
at
the
above
diagram,
we
can
see
that
Fatima
and
Asma
have
a
constant
relationship.
However,
when
there
is
tension
between
them,
Fatima
often
brings
in
a
third
or
fourth
party
(person
1,
person
2),
to
help
ease
the
tension.
This
way,
Fatima
did
not
have
to
worry
about
ruining
the
relationship
between
her
daughter
and
herself,
and
instead
would
have
others
do
the
Hamad
Fatima
Ahmad
Asma
Rashid
Grandpa
Person
1
Person
2
Asma
Fatima

4. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
disciplining.
I
would
say
that
this
triangle
of
relationships
became
more
obvious
after
Asma’s
father
got
kicked
out.
Fatima
often
felt
guilty
about
her
daughter
not
having
a
father,
so
she
found
it
easier
to
show
her
daughter
that
she
was
always
on
her
side.
As
a
result,
we
can
say
that
Asma
was
the
outsider
in
the
family,
but
her
mother,
who
was
an
insider,
would
often
take
her
side.
Although
there
are
many
interlocking
triangles
in
the
family,
through
assessing
her
family,
I
found
that
the
outsider
is
not
always
a
person.
For
example-­‐
When
Fatima
feels
anxiety
or
tension
with
any
of
the
other
family
members,
she
uses
religion
to
help
her
deal
with
it.
This
means
that
there
is
another
triangle,
which
involves
Fatima,
a
family
member,
and
religion.
Another
triangle
we
can
find
that
does
not
involve
a
person
is
with
Asma.
After
she
graduated
from
university,
she
started
dealing
with
the
tension
in
the
family
by
traveling.
Therefore,
this
new
triangle
would
include
Asma,
a
family
member,
and
travel
as
the
outsider.
Differentiation,
Marital
Conflict,
Dysfunction
of
One
Spouse,
&
Family
Projection
Looking
at
Bowen’s
second
concept
of
differentiation,
which
looks
at
the
ability
of
family
members
to
separate
their
“emotional
and
intellectual
spheres,”
I
found
that
Fatima
has
a
poorly
differentiated
self.
Bowen
(1976)
described
a
differentiated
self
as
a
solid
self,
and
an
undifferentiated
self
as
a
pseudo
self.
Basically
meaning
that
a
solid
self
knows
what
they
need
and
they
are
aware
of
the
relationships
around
them,
while
the
pseudo
self
acts
to
please
others
to
gain
their
approval
(Rabstejnek,
n.d.).
Looking
at
this
family,
we
can
see
that
Fatima
would
fall
under
the
pseudo-­‐self
category
because
of
her
need
to
make
everyone
around
her
happy.
She
allowed
her
father
and
brothers
to
over-­‐power
her
when
it
came
to
raising
Asma,
and
she
often
went
along
with
what
they
say.
She
would
never
stand
up
for
herself,
she
took
responsibility
of
taking
care
of
her
father
and
brother
after
the
accident,
she
is
scared
to
discipline
Asma
when
she
misbehaves,
and
she
always
gives
in
to
Asma’s
tantrums.
Fatima
does
not
work,
and
gets
her
satisfaction
by
making
sure
that
everyone
else
is
happy.
She
also
seeks
their
approvals,
which
are
all
signs
of
a
poorly
differentiated
self
(The
Bowen
centre,
n.d.).
In
addition,
she
finds
it
hard
to
deal
with
stress,
which
results
in
her
crying
every
day.
However,
we
may
question
how
did
Fatima
develop
a
low
differentiated
self.
Although
Bowen
mentioned
that
a
poorly
differentiated
self
results
in
the
child
if
the
parents
focus
too
much
on
the
problem
child,
leading
to
child
to
be
poorly
differentiated,
Bowen
did
not
mention
anything
about
differentiation
in
parents.
To
gain
a
deeper
understanding
behind
Fatima’s
low
differentiated
self,
we
would
first
have
to
look
at
the
marital
conflict.
Initially
there
was
no
marital
conflict
between
Fatima
and
Ahmad,
which
if
we
followed
Bowen’s
theory,
he
would
say
that
there
cannot
be
any
dysfunction
in
one
spouse.
Nevertheless,
I
would
have
to
argue
with
Bowen
on
this

5. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
point.
It
is
quite
obvious
that
Fatima’s
dysfunction
is
not
from
Ahmed
(since
he
is
not
even
in
the
picture),
but
from
her
father
and
brother’s
constant
over
powering
and
pressure
on
Fatima
to
agree
with
them
on
everything.
This
may
be
the
reason
behind
Fatima’s
crying,
feelings
of
anxiety,
and
constant
seeking
for
approval.
One
may
wonder
why
does
Fatima
give
in
to
her
father
and
brother?
To
answer
this,
I
believe
that
it
goes
back
to
her
ex-­‐
husband
Ahmad.
Before
Fatima
and
Ahmad
got
married,
Fatima’s
family
did
not
approve
of
their
relationship.
However,
Fatima
convinced
the
family
that
Ahmad
was
a
“good”
man.
However,
since
Ahmed
stole
from
the
family,
which
disappointed
Fatima
and
proved
her
family
right,
I
believe
that
her
feelings
of
guilt
arose
from
this.
She
believed
that
she
is
to
blame
for
what
Ahmad
had
done,
and
therefore,
is
seeking
forgiveness
from
her
father
and
brothers
by
always
trying
to
please
them.
In
conclusion,
we
may
speculate
that
her
poorly
differentiated
self
is
a
result
of
her
dysfunction,
which
is
not
from
her
relationship
with
Ahmad,
but
from
her
father
and
brothers.
Although
there
was
no
initial
marital
conflict
when
Ahmad
was
present,
we
can
see
a
rise
of
marital
conflict
at
a
later
time,
when
Asma
was
all
grown
up.
We
can
find
that
although
Fatima
wanted
approval
from
everyone
in
the
family,
she
used
her
husband
as
a
person
that
she
would
externalise
her
anxiety
on
by
blaming
him
for
everything.
For
example,
whenever
Asma
would
rebel
or
act
inappropriately,
Fatima
would
blame
the
father,
by
saying
that
if
he
never
did
what
he
did,
Asma
would
never
have
acted
out.
This
not
only
gave
rise
to
marital
conflict,
but
the
increased
tensions
also
lead
to
an
impairment
of
their
child,
which
is
linked
to
Bowen’s
concept
of
Family
Projection.
Looking
at
all
the
problems
in
the
family,
including
the
divorce,
the
accident,
and
the
high
levels
of
anxiety,
Asma
eventually
got
depression.
Fatima
was
so
focused
on
her
child,
where
she
would
give
in
to
Asma’s
demands
because
of
her
guilt
for
all
the
problems,
Asma
only
became
worse
by
internalizing
all
the
family
tensions
which
affected
her
well-­‐being
and
academic
performance.
Looking
back
at
differentiation,
unlike
Fatima,
Asma
shows
signs
of
a
solid
self.
She
is
able
to
not
get
her
emotions
tangled
up
with
her
decisions,
and
knows
what
she
wants
to
do
and
does
it.
Although
she
can
be
very
selfish,
and
makes
decisions
that
make
her
happy,
she
does
not
seek
approval
of
others
and
does
not
care
about
what
others
think
of
her.
However,
although
Asma
does
show
signs
of
a
solid
self,
we
can
also
find
signs
of
a
poorly
differentiated,
or
pseudo
self.
Throughout
her
childhood
she
would
look
for
ways
to
rebel
against
the
family,
and
she
often
did
this
by
smoking
or
sneaking
out
of
the
house.
In
addition,
although
she
is
confident
in
her
decisions
and
thoughts,
she
does
not
act
selflessly
for
the
benefit
of
the
group,
and
only
does
what
she
wants.
As
a
result
of
finding
a
solid
and
pseudo
self
in
Asma,
I
would
have
to
criticize
Bowen’s
theory
of
differentiation
on
this
as
well.
Bowen
explained
differentiation
as
two
separate
categories,
and
not
that
a
person
can
be
in
between
the
solid
and
pseudo
self.
Due
to
the
marital
conflict,
missing
father,
and

6. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
dysfunction
in
her
mother,
I
would
say
that
Asma
is
psychologically
confused.
She
also
is
well
aware
that
her
mother
will
always
be
on
her
side,
because
of
the
guilt
that
she
feels.
This
has
led
Asma
to
not
only
be
confused,
but
to
be
a
very
manipulative
person;
by
taking
advantage
of
her
mother’s
guilt
to
get
what
she
wants.
As
a
result,
I
would
say
that
due
to
everything
that
Asma
has
been
through,
she
has
learned
to
put
off
a
persona
of
a
highly
differentiated
self
as
a
defence
mechanism,
which
does
not
allow
her
symptoms
of
a
poorly
differentiated
self
to
show
clearly.
We
can
also
link
Asma’s
need
to
rebel
to
Bowen’s
concept
of
Family
projection.
Bowen
mentioned
that
when
children
inherit
the
emotional
problems
of
the
parents,
they
might
act
“impulsively
to
relieve
the
tension
or
anxiety
rather
than
tolerate
it,”
(Martin,
n.d.).
We
can
see
that
Asma
may
have
absorbed
the
tension
from
the
parents,
as
well
as
the
emotional
instability,
and
as
a
result
she
feels
the
need
to
act
wild.
Under
the
family
projection
concept,
we
can
also
find
a
link
between
Fatima
being
worried
that
Asma
will
feel
neglected,
hence
giving
her
everything
she
demands,
and
this
resulting
in
Asma
being
dependant
on
her
mother
to
satisfy
her
need,
instead
of
growing
independently
and
maturely.
Emotional
Distance,
Emotional
Cut-­‐off,
and
Marital
Conflict
Bowen
also
mentioned
emotional
distance,
where
people
“may
move
away
from
their
families,
rarely
go
home,
or
avoid
sensitive
issues”
(The
Bowen
Centre,
n.d.).
We
can
see
this
trait
in
Asma
as
she
grew
older.
She
would
always
want
to
go
out
and
hated
staying
at
home.
In
addition
to
this,
Asma’s
relationship
with
her
father
shows
that
she
has
turned
to
Emotional
Cut-­‐off.
She
met
her
father
when
she
was
18
and
they
got
along
quite
well
for
a
year,
but
she
suddenly
stopped
answering
his
calls
and
now
refuses
to
speak
to
him.
I
believe
that
she
has
never
forgiven
him
for
what
he
did,
and
instead
of
dealing
with
the
problem,
she
found
it
easier
to
completely
cut
off
any
emotional
connections
with
him.
In
addition,
I
believe
that
Asma’s
emotional
cut-­‐off
has
to
do
with
the
marital
tension
between
her
parents
as
well.
After
Asma
reconnected
with
her
father,
to
fill
that
hole
of
a
missing
father,
I
believe
that
she
became
even
more
confused
because
of
her
mother’s
mixed
signals.
Although
her
mother
never
argued
with
Asma
directly
for
contacting
her
father,
she
would
constantly
say
how
her
father
was
a
bad
man
for
doing
what
he
did,
and
blamed
him
for
all
the
bad
things
that
happened
in
their
life.
Bowen’s
concept
of
Emotional
Cut-­‐off
involves
completely
cutting
any
emotional
ties
to
avoid
dealing
with
the
tension.
I
believe
Asma
has
done
this
with
her
father,
to
avoid
dealing
with
the
increased
tension
between
her
parents
and
herself,
after
the
reconnection.
Bowen
also
mentioned
“people
reduce
the
tensions
of
family
interactions
by
cutting
off,
but
risk
making
their
new
relationships
too
important.”
I
think
that
this
makes
sense,
as
I
noticed
that
Asma
expects
a
lot
from
her

7. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
boyfriend,
and
pushes
him
to
be
what
she
wants
him
to
be,
just
like
Bowen
predicted
(The
Bowen
Centre,
n.d.).
Multi
Generational
Transmission
process
The
final
concept
is
Bowen’s
idea
of
Multi
Generational
Transmission
Process,
which
states
“children
are
affected
by
the
emotional
demands
of
the
triangle,
and
not
genetically
predispositioned
to
malfunction”
(Rabstejnek,
n.d.).
Although
I
believe
that
Bowen
has
a
point
in
this,
explaining
that
children
grow
up
to
be
the
way
they
are
because
of
the
triangles
of
relationships
which
have
an
effect
on
them,
as
well
as
their
parents’
differentiation
levels
(Martin,
n.d.),
I
do
not
think
that
the
way
a
person
is,
can
be
entirely
blamed
on
that;
their
personality
and
experiences
have
a
major
influence
as
well.
This
may
help
in
explaining
Fatima’s
poorly
differentiated
self,
as
it
may
be
due
to
the
relationship
between
her
own
parents
when
she
was
little.
However,
since
her
mother
is
dead,
there
is
no
way
in
really
knowing
without
investigating
Fatima’s
own
childhood.
The
biggest
problems
I
faced
while
applying
Bowen’s
theory
to
this
family
is
that
his
theory
tends
to
discount
the
fact
that
not
all
families
are
as
simple
as
a
three-­‐person
triangle.
As
you
can
see,
Asma’s
family
is
extremely
complicated,
as
she
lives
with
her
extended
family,
and
does
not
have
any
siblings.
In
addition,
although
Bowen
stated
that
the
family
unit
is
like
they
are
living
under
the
same
“emotional
skin,”
I
found
that
not
all
members
would
necessarily
be
affected.
For
example,
there
are
certain
families
where
one
particular
member
is
so
distant
that
no
matter
what
he/she
does,
there
is
no
affect
on
others.
For
example,
in
Asma’s
family,
although
her
uncle
Hamad
lives
with
them,
he
tends
to
live
in
his
own
world
where
he
goes
to
work
and
comes
back,
having
no
influence
on
others
around
him.
Another
problem
I
found
was
that
Bowen
tended
to
label
people
as
“the
problem
child,”
“the
insider”,
and
“the
outsider,”
but
doesn’t
emphasize
that
it
is
not
always
the
same
person.
In
Asma’s
case,
I
found
that
the
outsider
and
insider
changed
all
the
time,
which
made
it
hard
to
keep
track
of
who
was
the
tension
reliever,
and
who
wasn’t.
The
final
problem
I
had
with
this
theory
is
that
a
lot
of
his
concepts
seem
to
be
black
and
white.
When
in
actual
fact,
families
are
very
complicated
and
usually
fall
into
the
grey
area
of
Bowen’s
concepts.
For
example,
when
I
wanted
to
describe
the
differentiation
concept,
I
realised
that
people
can
have
characteristics
of
both
a
solid
self
as
well
as
a
pseudo
self.
For
this
reason,
I
had
a
few
problems
with
fitting
Bowen’s
cookie
cutter
concepts
with
Asma’s
family.
In
conclusion,
I
would
say
that
Bowen’s
family
system
theory
has
some
interesting
concepts
that
can
be
applied
to
help
in
understanding
a
family’s
structure
and
influence
on
each
other.
However,
I
think
that
his
theory
needs
to
be
revised
to
allow
the
complex

8. Mira
Jamal
M80000771
PSY410-­‐
Individual
and
family
assessment
families
of
today
to
be
able
to
apply
his
theory
to
their
own
family
dynamic.
It
is
a
complicated
system,
but
if
revised,
can
be
useful
and
interesting.
References
Bowen
Theory.
(n.d.).
Retrieved
from
The
Bowen
Center:
http://www.thebowencenter.org/pages/conceptec.html
Martin,
L.
(n.d.).
Murray
Bowen,
M.D.
and
The
Nine
Concepts
in
Family
Systems
Theory.
Retrieved
from
Ideas
to
Action:
http://ideastoaction.wordpress.com/dr-­‐bowen/
Rabstejnek,
C.
(n.d.).
Family
Systems
and
Murray
Bowen
Theory.
Houd.info.
Retrieved
on
19
January
2013