Murray Bowen, MD. The Father of Family Systems Theory Murray Bowen is considered to be the father of Family Systems theory. Bowen was studying to be a medical doctor when he discovered an alarming trend. Schizophrenic children and their mothers all seem to have a distorted and unbalanced relationship. This relationship had poor, emotional boundaries that made coexisting with each other more difficult. In some ways, the lack of boundaries and triangulation exasperated the psychological disorder.This observation opened up the door for Bowen to observe the dynamics of how the family could cause its own problems. Although your family may not have a schizophrenic person in your ranks, we can draw from some wisdom that Dr. Bowen was able to glean from the thousands of families he worked with over his lifetime. Families are like a mini-community. We may have even experienced a cycle or cause-and-effect episode while growing up in our family or in the family we now have. Sometimes it is helpful to reflect and explore if something as simple as birth order or weak boundaries can effect the happiness and health of the entire group. But how "Biblical" is Bowen? How are we to know if this is just another secular, humanist perspective that may affect our family's spiritual health? It is always wise to seek out wisdom. It is even more prudent to put up any philosophy or therapeutic method to see if it works within a Biblical framework. The following websites offer some unique insights on the subject of Murray Bowen and a Christian Worldview. The Families Systems Institute, by Jenny Brown offers an excellent insight to wresteliing with this very issue. She believes that Bowen's theory can be viewed as a scientific explanation of how families interact with one another. She writes: Bowen theory may be seen as part of this helpful knowledge base that is part of the generosity of God’s common grace to all humanity. At the same time the Christian stays mindful that any explanation of the human that comes from secular thought will not reveal our greatest problem…our separation from our creator God. There will always be limitations to human knowledge and any quest for knowledge to give meaning to life inevitably lowers our horizon to this short life and not to the world that Christians believe is to come. The challenge, on the other hand, is not to reactively dismiss information that does not come from Biblical thought but to use our God given thinking capacity to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Cor. 10:5 It is possible to view Bowen's theory as a scientific explanation of how God's grace can be spent between each other. We always wrestle between the polarity of the stewardship of grace found in Romans 6:1 and generosity of grace found in Romans 12:10. Bowen has a human explanation of how we can live in peace with others and to honor one another too. Psychology, in my own view, is a human explanation of how human behavior exists and how it can be changed. Psychology is the science and study of human behavior. Specifically, Murray Bowen's Theory is unique in that he desires for every person to be an "expert in their own family." Rob Price's article, Proverbial Wisdom: why Christians can think with Murray Bowen, he believes that the approach can augment our human relationships. It simply wants to describe the world as it is, as we live in it — with all its beauty, foolishness, and enigma — and help us live in it “better,” more wisely, more in tune with how the whole thing rolls, more given to life and its flourishing. Murray Bowen can offer us a unique and specific explanation on why we may "fail" each other. BUT, the distinct advantage to his theory and approach is that it calls things as they are and gives us tools to work through it. Bowen basically is not interested in "Lording" over us with his intellect but to empower us to become aware of our family's tension and provide hope to make everyone in the family happier and healthier.
What aspects do you find helpful?
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