By: Kimberly
Swanson - MS- Psy, CNA
Murray Bowen was a psychiatrist who pioneered the
family systems theory (the Bowen theory).
Dr. Bowen was born January 31, 1913, in Waverly, Tennessee. In 1934, he earned
a bachelor’s degree in science. He
furthered his education and earned his medical degree in 1937 at the University of Tennessee Medical School. Later, Bowen did his internship at Bellevue
Hospital and Grasslands Hospital in New
York. He later served in the military
for five years where he began to take an interested in the field of psychiatry.
Dr. Bowen has contributed substantially with the
field of psychology. He pioneered the
family systems theory because he felt that the family is the main source of
emotional needs and personality development.
Bowen had the opportunity to work with schizophrenia patients, He researched and noted the correlation between
children and their mothers. He
suggested that schizophrenia was due to generational dysfunction which
gradually leads to an offspring having schizophrenia. Even though Bowen’s family system theory is
based on his research on schizophrenic clients, he further expanded family system therapy to be a common type of therapy for various
conditions.
Bowen highlighted the differentiation of
self-awareness which is a critical objective for each member of the family
especially for children. With differentiation,
individuals see themselves as separate or independent of their family unit. Murray Bowen also extended the family systems
with the ideology that the reactions of
the family is based on individual birth order and the position of the family structure (Good Therapy, 2015) . Another well-known
theory that Bowen developed was the theory of triangulation; Triangulation takes place when an individual refocuses their attention away from the true problem (Good Therapy, 2015).
References
Good Therapy.
(2015). Murray
Bowen (1913-1990). Retrieved from http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/murray-bowen.html.
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