Power dynamics and the development of psychological symptoms

1. Demetrios N Peratsakis, MSEd, SDSAS, LPC, ACS, CCTP
WTCSB Executive Director

2. Power is a person's ability to exert influence and control.
It affects all aspects of social life and is a constant underlying all human interactions.
 Part of any good assessment is an understanding of the Power Dimension, how power affects a relationship
between two or more people, especially in a family systems between couples, siblings, and parents and their
children. Power, defines the rules, roles and core beliefs by which we operate.
 Conflict, is a natural consequence of the expression of power within our social interactions. It can serve to
innovate and lead to new opportunities or result in chronic tension and warfare. Normally, we successfully
mediate conflict throughout our relationships in a myriad of ways (Column A, slide 2).
 When these aren’t effective, the conflict may evolve into a Power Struggle, an exceedingly unhealthy impasse or
stale-mate between two or more persons. Enduring power struggles create chronic tension, a form of trauma that
leads to many forms of social and psychological ailments. These will express in one of several ways, which may
categorized by their defining characteristics (Column B).
 In order to break the impasse, participants may resort to a dramatic shift in the power-dynamic, including acts of
violence, betrayal or treachery or the use various forms of passive-aggression. These are intended to increase
one’s own leverage, decrease another’s, or both (Power-Plays, Column C). A good clinician assesses the
aftermath of trauma, works to understand how power is expressed, used, and misused in the relationship system,
and uncovers underlying power-struggles, then disengages and redirects them.
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3. Neutralizing or
Breaking an Impasse
Often Results in
Trauma
Unresolved,
conflict builds
Anxiety
Common Problem-
solving Remedies
 Collaboration/Alliance
(win/win)
 Compromise
(I bend/you bend)
 Accommodation
(I lose/you win)
 Competition
(I win/you lose)
 Avoidance
(no win/no lose)
 Triangulation
(win/win/lose)
Conflict
Natural to
human
interaction
Chronic Tension
Results in*
1. Open Discord
a. Stable, unsatisfying
b. Unstable (unsatisfying)
2. Impairment in a Child
a. Attention Seeking
b. Power Seeking
c. Revenge Seeking
d. Displays of Inadequacy
3. Impairment in a Partner
a. Failure
b. Depression
c. Illness
4. Emotional Cut-off,
Escape or Expulsion
* Bowen (1-4); Adler (2. a,b,c,d)
Power
Struggle
Intense
unresolved
discord
Power Play
Frustration and
hurt lead to
desperate and
unhealthy
solutions
Demetrios Peratsakis, LPC, ACS © 2014
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Examples:
Treachery/Betrayal
 theft, disloyalty, sabotage,
incest, abandonment, infidelity
Revenge
 punishment, suicide, crime,
depression, addiction, eating
disorders, failure or acts of
inadequacy
Violence
 warfare, bullying, threats, rage,
domestic violence, abuse
Rigid Detouring to an
Identified Patient/IP
(“Scapegoating”)
A B C

4. Unresolved conflict may result in a power-struggle that is broken by punishment or abuse
1. Combat: fighting, bickering, forcing, hurting, bullying, shaming, withholding, stealing, et al. often
triangulating outside parties, for added power, such as friends, family, counseling, the police, the courts, threats
of separation or divorce, seeking legal counsel
2. Sabotage: undermining the partner, their sources of support, their resources or their attempts to remedy the
situation, kids, work, etc.
3. Isolating/Withholding/Cutting-off: escape to solo activities, such as hobbies or individual interests; solo acts
of defiance and selfishness
4. Triangulating Others: patterns of adding power through the inclusion of a third-party, such as friend, family
member or child(ren). Examples include Collusions and Alliances
5. Domestic Violence: betrayal through violence, rape, incest, extra-marital affairs or sexual relationships
6. Passive-aggressive Acts that Control or Punish Others while Avoiding Responsibility and Blame
 Inadequacy or Failure: One partner becomes dysfunctional or ill, fails, or becomes the Identified Patient
(I.P.) or fulcrum of the Presenting Problem (P.P.)
 Victimhood or Withdrawal: symptoms are employed such as depression, self-harm/suicidality, sexual
dysfunction, eating disorders, addiction, procrastination, or other chronic, passive-aggressive syndromes or
forms of punishment or control.
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To obtain a copy of a more extensive training on Domestic Violence
Please email me at dperatsakis@wtcsb.org