Mother And Son Relationships In Joseph Conrad's Family

Conrad’s family unit now consists of him, his mother and his father. After the loss and trauma, they have experienced there is a strain on their relationships. Especially the relationship between mother and son. The most communication we see from the mother is when she speaks to her husband or basically anyone other than her son. The family is emotionally tied to each other but the communication is disconnected. The mother seems to have withdrawn from Conrad completely, only speaking to with polite conversation, not meaningful conversations. In the structural family therapy, therapist focuses on the family’s interactions with each other to understand the way the family is organized or structured. In an organized family we see clear boundaries …show more content…
Conrad’s relationship with his father is less strained in comparison but he does feel like he has a hard time communicating with him. During a fight between Conrad and his mother, Conrad expressed his frustration with his dad for not addressing the treatment he was receiving from his mother. When Conrad’s father went to talk to him later that night about the fight, Conrad expressed regret for what he said to both his mother and his father but he did not want to apologize to his mother himself, he wanted his father to apologize for him. He kept saying to his father “please don’t be mad at me” and his father immediately reassured him that he was not mad at him. I think during this scene we can clearly see his emotional attachment to his father is a lot stronger than his emotional attachment to his mother. The emotional attachment between Conrad and his mother is insecure and avoidant. There are times when Conrad pursues more meaningful connection with his mother but his mother withdraws and leaves the conversation. I think it could take years for this family to make it to therapy. Conrad’s mother was very adamant that she did not want to go to therapy. Instead of going to family therapy, like her husband asked, Conrad’s mother decided to leave. If this family were to go to family therapy, I think it would follow the human validation process model. In this model, the key concepts to follow are the enhancement and validation of self-esteem, family rules, congruence and openness in communications and