family theory and anorexia

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Recommended: Family systems theory

Murray Bowen, a pioneer of psychiatry in the 1950s proposed a family system theory where each family member’s behaviour is explained by eight interlocking concepts. The first concept is triangle. It is a three person relationship system and is considered as the basic building block of larger emotional unit. A triangle can contain more tension than a dyad (two person system) due to the shifting of tension among the three person involved. The next one is differentiation of self. It is stated that families affects strongly how a person thinks. Depends on how a family functions, the children will either have a well-defined or a poorly-defined “self” depending on their emotional dependence on other people. There is also the nuclear family emotional system. The concept describes 4 basic relationships that govern where problems develop in a family; marital conflict, dysfunction in one spouse, impairment of one or more children and emotional distance. The fourth concept is family projection process which describes the way parents transmit their emotional problem to their child. The primary c...

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