Genogram: Family Relationships And Patterns

The purpose of a genogram is to give psychoanalyst and clients an overview of family relationships and patterns. The genogram may help the therapist analyze the family and help them deal with their current issues. For example, my mother created a genogram it only identified my black ancestors, but when I conducted my research I discovered that some of my ancestors were from Asia and Europe. This is indicative of a common problem among blacks finding black families through standard genealogy practices and techniques. During, slavery African American relied on the use of story telling when it came down its history generation to generation. From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers

According to the article “What is a Genogram states Genogram a graphic representation of a family tree that displays detailed data on relationships among individuals. It goes beyond a traditional family tree by allowing the user to analyze hereditary patterns and psychological factors that punctuate relationships.”The genogram was first created and popularized in the clinical setting by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson through the publication of the book in 1985” (What is a Genogram, 1998). The genogram is mainly used fields such as medicine, psychology, social work, genealogy, genetic research, and education. When developing a genogram it contains three levels: mapping the family structure, recording family information, and delineating family

The mapping is a creation of figures representing people and lines describing their relationship. However, there are different ways to draw a genogram. Often many people are lead to confusion when reading a genogram since clinician uses different symbols to explain the relationship of the family. The family mapping shows family members next of kin. Each member is represented by a box or circle indentifying his or her gender. When a genogram created a patient, the lines are doubled and for a person who is deceased an X is placed inside the figured (McGoldrick, Gerson, and Shellenberger, 1999). For example, the genogram will indicate a female who was born in 1960 and dies 1977 at the age of 17. Birth dates and death dates are showed on the left or right side hand side of a genogram, but genograms only mark deaths that are