One Family's Story: A Primer on Bowen Theory

One Family's Story offers an introduction to the eight concepts of Bowen family systems theory, which is a theory of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems thinking to describe the interactions in the unit. Those concepts are Triangles, Differentiation of Self, Nuclear Family Emotional System, Family Projection Process, Multigenerational Transmission Process, Emotional Cutoff, Sibling Position, and Societal Emotional Process. In One Family's Story, author Michael E. Kerr, MD uses a fictional family to illustrate the eight interlocking concepts Dr. Murray Bowen developed to describe these complex interactions.