Bowenian Approach

             Bowen believed that family dysfunction is passed on generationally. The Bowenian Model associates family dysfunction with “fusion” in families and the lack of differentiation.  Bowen believed that by alleviating the anxiety in the family unit and by raising the differentiation between family members, that the symptomology itself within the system would be alleviated. 

             Bowen suggests that in every generation the child most involved in the family’s conflict moves toward chronic anxiety and a lower level of differentiation, while the child least involved with the family’s conflict moves toward less anxiety and a higher level of differentiation. In Bowenian theory, anxiety is the underlying explanation for why people become emotionally reactive and dependent or avoidant.       

             Absence of differentiation in a family produces reactive children, which in turn leads to issues in other future relationships, because people with limited emotional resources tend to project their needs onto other people. When relationships are unstable, it is likely for additional problems to occur like: overt conflict, projection onto children, physical or emotional dysfunction in one partner, and/or emotional distance. The level of intensity of the problems is related to the degree of undifferentiation, extent of emotional cutoff from families of origin, and level of stress in the system (Nichols, 2014).