The document discusses how loss and interpersonal conflict can become dysfunctional in families. It covers developmental tasks like adapting to change and satisfying needs. Families accomplish these through roles, rules, boundaries and hierarchies. Triangles form to reduce anxiety, but can become rigid over time, with family members taking on problematic roles. Unresolved emotional pain from trauma can lead to symptoms like addiction if not treated. Bowen and Minuchin's theories on triangulation, projection, and detouring are referenced to explain how problems are transmitted between family members.

1. How Loss and Interpersonal Conflict
Become Dysfunction

2. I. Developmental Tasks
II. Family Organization
III. Triangles, Triads and Triangulation
IV. Conflict & Power
V. Trauma: Anxiety and Depression as expressions of
Anger, Shame and Guilt
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3. Adaptation to Normative Social Change

4. Developmental Tasks
Individuals and Families transform over time as they accommodate to the natural processes of developmental social growth.
Needs
Skill Development Tasks
Growth and psychological health occur as a natural consequence of skill
development in each of the three major tasks of life:
1.Adaptation to normative (and para-normative) change,
an inherent condition of life (Life-cycle)
2. Satisfying the needs of living and belonging in a socially meaningful way
(Maslow Hierarchy of Needs; Adler, Social Interest/Tasks of Life); and
3. Resolving the emotional pain caused by trauma
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5. Structures for Accomplishing Tasks, Functions and Needs

6. People meet their basic needs, social responsibilities and child-rearing functions
through defined roles, rules, boundaries, subsystems, and hierarchies.
 roles: tasks, responsibilities, and power associated with certain functions (identities)
 rules: beliefs governing transactions and behaviors towards each other (who does what and how) and others
 patterns: purposive interactional transactions that acquire meaning, concreteness and history
 sub-systems: association by common role or function; ie. the “parents”, “siblings”, or “men”
 hierarchy: distribution of power (the ability to influence outcome) and responsibility, typically
by age, experience, role or function
 boundaries: the term has two, related meanings, both regarding the degree of emotional fusion within a relationship:
o a marker of the degree of flexibility within a relationship system. Flexibility, is a necessary condition for adaptation to change; it
is measured as “rigid” (too inflexible), “clear” (appropriate) or “diffuse” (too vague) and illustrated by family mapping.
o the term “boundary” also refers to the degree of emotional proximity or reactivity within a relationship, sometimes understood as
the degree of separateness or independence of thought, feeling and action (fusion). This is best illustrated by use of the genogram.
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7. Triangles: Problem Solvers and Creators
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8. 8
You Are
Here

9. dyad
third person or subject of mutual, concern or interest
anxiety
closeness may increase as
anxiety is reduced
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10. dyad
third person or subject of mutual, concern or interest
Anxiety decreases in dyad
 Third party helps mediate conflict or remedy problem in the two-person relationship (dyad). For example:
 siblings cease their disagreement over chores to actively chide their younger brother
 co-workers are unclear on best approach to an issue and seek guidance from their supervisor
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1. Greater anxiety = more closeness or distance

11. dyad
third person or subject of mutual,
concern or interest
Alliance increases
trust and intimacy
 Two members (or all three) are drawn closer in alliance or
support. For example:
 Separated or divorced husband and wife come together as parents
for their child in need
 sisters share greater intimacy after one has been the victim of a
crime (the triangulated my be a person or an issue, such as “work”,
the “neighbors” or in this example, the “crime”)
closeness may increase as
anxiety is reduced
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12. Over time
 Triangulation begins as a normative response due to stress or
anxiety caused by transition, change or conflict
 The pattern habituates, then rigidifies as a preferred transactional
pattern for avoiding stress in the dyad
 The IP begins to actively participate in maintaining the role due to
primary and secondary gains
 The “problem”, that serves the purpose of refocusing attention onto
the IP and away from tension within the dyad, becomes an
organizational node around which behaviors repeat, thereby
governing some part of the family system’s communication/function
 Overtime, this interactional sequence acquires identity, history and
functional value (Power), much like any role, and we call it a
“symptom” or the symptom-bearer “dysfunctional”
 A key component in symptom development is that the evolving
pattern of interaction avoids more painful conflict
 This places the IP at risk of remaining the “lightning rod” and
accelerating behaviors to maintain the same net effect.
 When this occurs it negates the need to achieve a more effective
solution (adaptive response) to some other important change and
growth is thwarted. The ensuing condition is called “dysfunction”.
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13. Minuchin and Bowen
Detouring and Cross-generational Coalitions are two types of triangulation described by
Salvador Minuchin (1974) that lead to problematic behavior patterns.
“When parents are unable to resolve problems between them, they may direct their focus of concern away from themselves and onto the
child, perhaps reinforcing maladaptive behavior in the child. The child may then become identified as the problematic member of the
family. Detouring occurs when parents, rather than directing anger or criticism toward each other, focus the negativity on the child and
the parent-child conflict thus serves to distract from the tension in the marital subsystem. This type of triangulation also is sometimes
referred to as scapegoating as the child's well-being is sacrificed in order that the marital conflict might be avoided (Minuchin 1974).
Cross-generational coalitions develop when one or both parents trying to enlist the support of the child against the other parent. Cross-
generational coalitions also exist when one of the parents responds to the child's needs with excessive concern and devotion
(enmeshment) while the other parent withdraws and becomes less responsive. In the latter situation, the attention to the child is
supportive rather than critical or conflictual. Minuchin believed cross-generational coalitions to be particularly associated with
psychosomatic illness (Minuchin, Rosman, and Baker 1978) and recent research also shows associations with marital distress (e.g.,
Kerig 1995; Lindahl, Clements, and Markman 1997)”.
-Courtesy of http://family.jrank.org/pages/1707/Triangulation-Systemic-Structural-Family-Theories.html">Triangulation - Systemic And Structural Family Theories
These processes are the mechanics by which the family “projects” their anxieties unto a member (see Bowen, 1966, 1972)
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14. Bowen: relationship fusion, which leads to triangling or triangulation, fuels symptom formation which manifests itself in one
of three categories. 1) couple conflict; 2) impairment or illness in a partner or spouse; or 3) projection of a problem onto one
or more children (family projection process).
* “The family projection process describes the primary way parents transmit their emotional problems to a child. The projection process can impair the functioning of one or
more children and increase their vulnerability to clinical symptoms. Children inherit many types of problems (as well as strengths) through the relationships with their parents,
but the problems they inherit that most affect their lives are relationship sensitivities such as heightened needs for attention and approval, difficulty dealing with expectations, the
tendency to blame oneself or others, feeling responsible for the happiness of others or that others are responsible for one’s own happiness, and acting impulsively to relieve the
anxiety of the moment rather than tolerating anxiety and acting thoughtfully. If the projection process is fairly intense, the child develops stronger relationship sensitivities than
his parents. The sensitivities increase a person’s vulnerability to symptoms by fostering behaviors that escalate chronic anxiety in a relationship system.
The projection process follows three steps:
(1) the parent focuses on a child out of fear that something is wrong with the child;
(2) the parent interprets the child’s behavior as confirming the fear; and
(3) the parent treats the child as if something is really wrong with the child.
These steps of scanning, diagnosing, and treating begin early in the child’s life and continue. The parents’ fears and perceptions so shape the child’s development and behavior
that he grows to embody their fears and perceptions. One reason the projection process is a self-fulfilling prophecy is that parents try to “fix” the problem they have diagnosed in
the child; for example, parents perceive their child to have low self-esteem, they repeatedly try to affirm the child, and the child’s self-esteem grows dependent on their
affirmation.
Parents often feel they have not given enough love, attention, or support to a child manifesting problems, but they have invested more time, energy, and worry in this child than
in his siblings. The siblings less involved in the family projection process have a more mature and reality-based relationship with their parents that fosters the siblings developing
into less needy, less reactive, and more goal-directed people. Both parents participate equally in the family projection process, but in different ways. The mother is usually the
primary caretaker and more prone than the father to excessive emotional involvement with one or more of the children. The father typically occupies the outside position in the
parental triangle, except during periods of heightened tension in the mother-child relationship. Both parents are unsure of themselves in relationship to the child, but commonly
one parent acts sure of himself or herself and the other parent goes along. The intensity of the projection process is unrelated to the amount of time parents spend with a child”.
` - courtesy The Bowen Center
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16. Conflict in the dyad goes
unresolved as attention is drawn
away from important issues
child
# 2. Collusion and Cross-generational Coalitions
# 1. Detouring or “Scapegoating”
Collusion: Two members ally against a third, such as when a friend serves as a confidant with
one of the partners during couple discord or siblings ally against another. The third member
feels pressured or manipulated or gets isolated, feels ignored, excluded, or rejected as a result of
being brought into the conflict
Cross-generational Coalition: The third party is a child pulled into an inappropriate role
(cross-generational coalition) such as mediator in the conflict between two parents. This could
include parent-child-parent and parent-child-grandparent triangles.
Two Problem Triangles
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# 1
# 2

17. Emotional Fusion and the Power Dimension

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19. Unresolved Emotional Pain & Treatment

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21. Common Signs and Symptoms of Psychological Trauma
Cognitive/Behavioral:
 Intrusive thoughts, images, smells and sounds of the event
 Nightmares
 Disorientation, confusion, loss of memory or ability to concentrate
 Mood swings, especially fear, sadness and anger
 Avoidance or lack of interest in activities or places that trigger memories
 Social isolation and withdrawal
Physical:
 Fatigue and exhaustion
 Tachycardia; irritable or edgy, nervous or easily startled
 Insomnia or difficulty sleeping; loss of appetite of eating problems
 Sexual dysfunction
 Hypervigilance; preoccupation with safety, danger or risk
Psychological:
 Feeling overwhelmed or fearful; feeling anxious, vulnerable and unsafe; panic attacks
 Ritualized behavior, obsessive and compulsive behaviors; rumination
 Depression or detachment from others
 Failure or self-defeating behavior
 Blaming, shaming or feelings of guilt
 Anger
Untreated Psychological Trauma, may include
 Addiction, Alcoholism or Substance abuse
 Sexual problems or dysfunctions
 Distrust/Issues with intimacy, closeness or trust
 Hostility or rage
 Combativeness, pervasive irritability or social withdrawal
 Self-destructive behaviors including self-injury and suicide
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22. "Thereis nocomingtoconsciousness withoutpain”
-CarlG. Jung
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