System Theory-Murray Bowen

System theory is where you analyze a whole group instead of all the little pieces. The little pieces referring to individual people and whole group refers to the family. The individuals influence each other and work together and outside influences have very little effect on the whole. An example is a child and one parent are very close while the other parent might be outside the bubble. You need to anaylze the family to understand what is really going on.  Sometimes there are other reason for the disagreements.

We as humans respond to emotional rather than cognitive. This is based on Murray Bowens Theory (1978). We had a mock example of this theory in class. We had a mother, father and child. The child had had alot of asthma attacks and had been to the doctor alot. The therapist (teacher) was asking about what happens exactly when the child starts to have an asthma attack. The mother responded by saying that she got all worked up and was very scared for the child. So that led them going to the doctor. While all this was happening usually the father was not home at all so the responsibility fell on the mother. If the father was home he usually didn't know what to do. He called his wife when the asthma attacks happened and she walked him through what he needed to do. As the therapist was getting the back story he kept asking questions, not in a forceful way and telling them what they needed to do, but having them come to the conclusion themselves. The father talked and said he didn't really feel like the mother gave him enough responsibility and didn't trust him to take care of the child by himself. The mother told the father what he needed to do when the child had an asthma attack. With this it gave the parents equal responsiblity and they felt like they could take care of the situation whenever it happened. The father was a very calm person and so when the asthma attacks happened afterwords he was able to calm the child, and mother down and they went to the doctors less often. Now instead of the father on the outside of the family he was in the middle supporting his wife and child.

I thought this was such a great way to learn this theory and see it play out. It helped to see the hands on experience and be able to understand and to really know how the Murray Bowen Theory really works.