Murray Bowen's Transgenerational Model

For this assignment, I am going to conceptualize this case using the transgenerational model of Murray Bowen. This model sees current family patterns embedded in unresolved issues in the family of origin. When problems remain unsettled, they persist and repeat across generations. The family is seen as an emotional unit, a network of interlocking relationships.
First, we will focus on the differentiation of self. It looks like the main characters of our case; Jacob, Leah and Rachel are poorly differentiated. Jacob is in a fused relationship with his mother, Rebecca. He is not able to figure his own needs when she pushed him to claim first born birthright. Even though he likes his brother he complies with his mother’s wish, in doing so he does …show more content…
Their emotional overcloseness and distance are equally intense (overcloseness: instant love and need to get married, Rachel asks Jacob to be his favorite wife, his real love, distance: Rachel send Leah to be married instead of her, Rachel withdraws because she cannot get pregnant). Because this family is polygamous there is another nuclear family emotional system between Jacob and Leah. Their pattern is more a dysfunction in a spouse where the dysfunction takes the form of an overadequate-underadequate reciprocity. Leah takes on most family responsibilities (she takes care of the mating of the herd and knows who to contact to sell them, she cooks, cares of most children of the family, weaves clothing) while Jacob care for the herd with her help. As this concept is multigenerational we need to look at Jacob’s and Leah’s parents way of functioning. Jacob’s parents are depicted with Rebecca as a matriarch that has power in her family while her husband is bling and sound weak. In Leah’s family Laban is depicted as lazy, alcoholic and cruel. He is not caring for his family nor is he working. Adah is sick right from the beginning but Leah has taken over her role and is already the headwoman of her father’s holding. At the time we are focusing on (jacob’s weddings with Leah and Rachel) the children are barely present, as Leah will only deliver her first …show more content…
During the interview the therapist not only gather information for the genogram but it is also a good time to find what feelings were triggered by those relationships. The genogram can highlight patterns of functioning while I-statements help in developing new pattern of communication that will decrease the emotional charge of message being sent. Furthermore the therapist may decide to organize back home visit. These visits are intended to reestablished emotional connectedness within the family of origin while working on detriangulating its members, reducing their anxiety level and achieve a better self-differentiation. This technique could be used for those like Dinah and Jacob who left their family. Before setting up those visits, the therapist would have to work with them on a set of rules to observe, such as being an observer in order to stay differentiated from old patterns of