Intergenerational and Psychoanalytic Flashcards
Murray Bowen
Intergenerational Therapy
Michael Kerr
Georgetown Family Center: One of Bowen’s most influential students. Has served as director of Georgetown Family Center
Philip Guerin and Thomas Fogarty
Cofounded Center for Family Learning in New York. Written extensively on the clinical application of Bowen’s model.
Monica McGoldrick and Betty Carter
Created model of the family life cycle - uses the Bowenian concept of togetherness and independence. Extensive work with genogram.
David Schnarch
Sexual Crucible model. Increase couple’s capacity for sexual intimacy by increasing levels of differentiation.
Primary Intervention in intergenerational therapy
Viewing: The approach’s effectivness relies on therapists ability to accurately assess the family dynamics and thereby guide the healing process.
3 of the most influential psychoanalytic family therapies
- Contextual Family Therapy (Nagy)
- Family of Origin Therapy (Framo)
- Object Relations Family Therapy (Sharff?)
Ethical System
introduced my Nagy - at the heart of family systems. Ledgers, entitlement, and indebtedness. Overall idea of fairness
Nathan Ackerman
Associated with psychoanalytic therapies - Menninger Clinic in the 1930’s and Jewish Family Services, later opened the Ackerman Institute in the 1960s - one of the earliest pioneers of working with entire families. Co-founded the field’s first journal Family Process
Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy
Unique contribution was the idea that families have an ethical system, which he conceptualized as a ledger of entitlement and indebtedness.
Framo
Student of Nagy - Best known for developing family-of-origin therapy
David and Jill Scharff
Object relations family therapy
Marianne Walters
The Women’s Project: reformulated many foundational family therapy concepts through a feminist lens.
Holding Environment
Psychoanalytic term for the creation of a caring and therapeutic relationship
Contextual Holding
Psychoanalytic Term: One aspect of the holding environment - the handling of therapy arrangements (conducting sessions competently, expressing concerns for the family, and being willing to see the entire family)
Centered Holding
Psychoanalytic Term: One aspect of the holding environment - connecting with the family at a deeper level by expressing empathic understanding to create a safe emotional space
Multidirectional Partiality
Psychoanalytic “stance”: term meaning being “partial” with all members of the family.
Interlocking or Interdependent pathologies
the constant exchange of unconscious processes within families. Any individual’s pathology reflects those family distortions and dynamics
Defense Mechanisms
Automatic Responses to perceived psychological threats and are often activated on an unconscious level
Splitting
“all good” and “all bad” quality to relationships.
Projection
falsely attributing one’s own unacceptable feeling, impulses, or wishes onto another. Ex: this is often seen when one partner thinks of cheating and then projects these intentions onto the faithful partner
Projective Identification
Client defends against anxiety by projecting certain split-off or unwanted parts of themselves onto the other person who is then manipulated to act according to these projections
Repression
Unconscious process (more pathological than suppression)
Suppression
Conscious process (less pathological that repression)
Minimizing
Used to reduce the intensity of the situation and avoid resulting consequences (i.e. minimizing IPV)
Displacement
Redirecting intense emotion from a more threatening object to a less threatening object (i.e. yelling at child instead of boss)
Intergenerational Therapist “Stance”
Nonanxious Presence: Non-reactive, meaning that the therapist does not react to attacks, “bad” news, and so forth without careful reflection.
Multigenerational Transmission Process
foundation of dysfunction in Bowen’s theories
Process Questions
Intergenerational Intervention: questions that help clients see the systemic process of the dynamics that they are enacting.
Encouraging Differentiation of Self
Intergenerational Intervention: encouraging clients to use “I” positions
Genogram
Intergenerational Intervention
Detriangulation
Intergenerational Intervention: if therapy becomes “stuck” therapists must first examine their role in a potential triangle
Relational Experiments
Intergenerational Intervention: behavioral homework assignments designed to reveal and change unproductive relational processes in families.
Going Home Again
Intergenerational Intervention: Be able to be in the presence of “old irritants” and not regress to past behaviors but instead keep a clear sense of self.
Parental Introjects
Framo (FOO therapy) believes that the most significant dynamic affecting individual and family functioning is parental Introjects- the internalized negative aspects of parents
Entitlements
Nagy: ethical guarantees to merits that are earned in the context of relationships. Ex: the freedom parents are entitled to because of the care they extend to children.
Destructive Entitlements
Nagy: result when children do not receive the nurturing that they are entitled and later project that loss onto the world, which they see as their “debtors”
Revolving Slate
Nagy: a destructive relational process in which one person takes revenge in one relationship based on the relational transactions in another relationship.
Psychoanalytic Interventions (3 generic)
- Listening and Empathy
- Interpretation and promoting insight
- Working Through - process of translating insight into new action in family and other relationships
Contextual Family Therapy Interventions (4)
- Exoneration
- Multigenerational work
- Re-enactments
- Co-therapy
Exoneration
Contextual Intervention:
Process through which balance is regained and trust restored when a client’s ledger contains destructive entitlement
Multigenerational Work in Contextual Family
depends on optimal resource potential for expanding mutual trustworthiness and self-validation. Ex: De-parentification
Re-enactments in Contextual Family Therapy
Bring out invisible loyalties (transference) for discussion
Co-therapy in Contextual Family Therapy
Can be used as models for equality and mutuality
