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Family Genogram Case Study

1175 Words5 Pages

McGoldrick, Gerson, & Petry (1985) define family as “those who are tied together through their common biological, legal, cultural, and emotional history and by their implied future together”. It is one of the most powerful systems we as humans will belong to (Carter & McGoldrick, 2005, as cited in McGoldrick et. al 1985). Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist, was one of the developers of mainstream family therapy (Corey, 2008). Bowen defined the family system as an emotional system and a principle driving force in the development of clinical problems (Kerr, 2000). It is important to understand both the current and historical context of the family and the genogram allows us to do just that. A wealth of information can be gleaned from my family …show more content…

Relationship patterns and roles within the family altered simultaneously. My Mother assumed the role of provider and my maternal grandmother joined the system, stepping in as caretaker. The two oldest siblings were at boarding school and mostly absent from the family unit during my early years. John, became the “black sheep”, following on to the army after boarding school. On the few occasions, my sister Mary was present, she assumed a maternal and nurturing role. Richard the middle child assumed the position of eldest and became the family hero or as we called him the “golden child”. Cormac became the Mascot, funny and distracting, anything for a laugh, especially during times of stress. I, the youngest slipped into the role of the Lost child, shy and quiet and attaching more easily to things rather than …show more content…

Cut-offs may reduce tension initially, nevertheless, problems still remain unresolved. For many years, my eldest brother used cut-off as a means of coping with emotional issues. Today, he lives in the U.K. and only visits occasionally and for short periods of time, unable to cope with being around family for long periods of time. There appears to be unresolved attachment, as he feels my mother never understood him or approved of him. Perhaps understandable as much of his early years were spent at boarding school and then the army which in turn became a substitute family for

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A family contains young minds that are at first taught the building of personality or character and controlling the emotions of him or herself, while also being taught how to set goals for life (Ritter) But as new generations came of age, the family became a weakened and fractured unit as husbands and wives gave way to the human nature of adultery in a widespread manor. Here in America, the family has been under constant assault and broken marriages and broken households are now a normal thing to see. Few fathers show the guidance and teaching to their children that is needed often requiring the mother to take on both roles. As children grow up being more spoiled and pampered to, they are never learning to accept and recover from setbacks.

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Stone writes about three essential functions of family stories– to pass on the family’s standards, to identify family characteristics, and coping strategies. The first of the three functions is the standards of the family since the family act as the “first culture,” teaching people what their family values and their opinions on certain situations like marriage and illness, mental or physical (Stone 384). The second factor is the family’s characteristics and their traits that bind them together, which act as the family member’s confidence boost (384). Furthermore, this boost makes them value themselves more than the next family, so that the family members contently remain together (384). The third factor is influencing how families cope; these “teaching stories” tell each family how to function outside of the family (385).

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I define my family more like Robert Hayden than Linda Hogan; I define my family as my mother, my sister, my grandparents, and house where I grew up. Linda Hogan’s family was a nomadic tribe that moves from place to place, and she wrote about problem of perception of herself as a part of one race; Robert Hayden in his poem describe don’t understanding of parents’ love in a family; while I can describe my family issue as a misunderstanding the role of the father in the family because I grew up without the father. My mother got divorce when I was a child, and couple years late my father was killed. Like Hayden I can say about my house that I felt “fearing the chronic angers of that house” because my dad was alcoholic, and I saw a lot family violence

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I. Introduction Parenthood, a drama television series, attends to the adversity of an extended and imperfect family. The Bravermans are a blended California family who face a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events but together find a way to get by (Katims, 2010). Television consumers have been introduced to many fictional families overtime and continue to fall in love with family related television shows. Historically, the media has transformed and continues to adapt to the changes in present day family types. “Writers often take seeds from real life experiences and plant then in their scripts,” consumers both consciously or subconsciously attend to cues on television and want to apply what they see to their lives.

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If the family members cannot think through their responses to relationship dilemmas, a state of chronic anxiety may be set in place. According to Brown (1999.), the primary goal of family systems therapy is to reduce constant tension by enabling knowledge and awareness of how the emotional system functions; and by improving levels of differentiation, where the aim is to make changes for the self rather than on trying to change others. As per Richardson, Gilleard, Lieberman, and Peeler (1994), The short-term goal is to foster better relationships between family members of the different generations by understanding the family system with its rules and balances of power and to mobilize the system by reconstruing these rules and having the family observe its own

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Bowen family systems theory is used for understanding both family emotional and relationship processes (Knauth, 2003). Kolbert, Crothers, and Field (2013) suggest that although there are few publications on Bowen family systems theory, it provides counsellors with a framework for clients, specifically with helping adolescents understand how their functioning and identity have been influenced by their family. Bowen’s differentiation of the self has been argued to be equivalent to identity, and an individual’s balance both togetherness and individuality within their family, family members are both borrowing and lending aspects of themselves between each other (Kolbert, Crothers, & Field, 2013). Bowen, (1978, p. 188) suggested that individuals

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Emotional cut off is an extreme measure when a family member no longer interacts with the others emotionally, becoming isolated in their function and in their exchange with the rest of the family members. This concept is important to the functioning of a three generational genogram. When a family member displays emotional cut off, the anxiety of the family is spread across lesser members, with this particular member’s isolation creating even more anxiety and pressure upon the family. In extension, this cut off not only impacts the immediate family, but it disseminates itself across the generational boundaries (Dr Murray Bowen, 2014). In turn family members may try to replace this relationship with another one, creating a potential for vulnerability and let downs.

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Genograms are a great way to organize different subtypes of your family. You can organize a genogram with generations, authority, power, and age. When I organized my family in these groups I realized that age sometimes does not correlate to how much power the family member may have. I thought I knew everything about my family members and their roles but, after doing this assignment it made me make better conclusions why some people have more say than other do in the family. Genograms also helps make connections why you are not as close to some family members but closer to others.

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As described in Chee’s study, children who care for their younger siblings tend to struggle with managing their sibling’s behavior. They are unequipped to handle their siblings when they misbehave and some attempt to discipline them with physical violence. Furthermore, the participants in a study conducted by Dr. Melching were found to have lower levels of hope and increased amounts of stress that oftentimes carried over into their adult lives (Chee, 2015). As parentified children transition into adulthood, they may experience ambiguous loss, in which a person is physically alive, but psychologically absent, further resulting in depression. However, the study also states that social support is key to processing their experiences and preventing severe mental

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Family members may or may not be biologically related, share the same household, or be legally recognized” (Raney, 2015:6). In the series Modern family, it shows the dynamics of a 21st century family and how traditions and culture has evolved over the years. As opposed to “nuclear family” “No longer does the traditional family consist of two parents and two children; instead, more diverse and shifting family structures are becoming the norm.

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