Academic literature on the topic 'Bowens Family Systems Theory'

The thesis examines the American psychiatrist Murray Bowen’s major contribution to his profession, Bowen Family Systems Theory, as a literary-critical tool to interrogate the theme of family disintegration in Tennessee Williams’s early and middle plays written between 1945 and 1962. Both Williams and Bowen were writing in a specific intellectual and cultural context in terms of post-World War II attitudes towards the American family and its social function. Bowen theory understands family as an interrelated emotional system, in which a change in the functioning of one part of the system directly relates to changes in the whole system. I argue that we find a parallel to this in Williams’s plays: members of the family do not function separately, but within the context of the system that shapes their feelings, thoughts, and behaviour. The four chapters of the thesis pair eight of Williams’s major works using the eight interlocking concepts that form the basis of Bowen theory: chapter 1 examines differentiation of self and triangles in The Glass Menagerie (1945) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947); in chapter 2, nuclear family emotional system and family projection process in Summer and Smoke (1948) and Period of Adjustment (1961); in chapter 3, multigenerational emotional process and sibling position in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959); and, in chapter 4, emotional cutoff and societal emotional process in Suddenly Last Summer (1958) and The Night of the Iguana (1962). Not only does Bowen help to elucidate a central theme of Williams’s writing, but the psychodynamics of therapy are reflected in Williams’s dramatic accounts of the plight of the mid-twentieth century family. In the introduction I argue that Bowen theory is a useful tool for the analysis of modern American literature, developing the ways in which psychoanalytical theory has been used by literary critics to gain a broader understanding of the group context of family life in the postwar period. This will be demonstrated through the four chapters, while the conclusion considers what Bowen offers to literary studies more broadly, and what the limitations of his theory might be.

<p> Family firms contribute to both the national and global economies. Over the last few decades, the family-business field has continued to develop, as have its counterpart disciplines of business, economics, psychology, and social sciences. The study of leadership theory has also advanced over the years; however, not much research has applied this theory to family firms. </p><p> This dissertation contains the oral histories of a family-owned manufacturing business that is still operating after 60 years. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the leadership dynamics of a family operation. To provide a theoretical leadership model to understand the oral histories presented in this dissertation, four major themes were discussed: family systems theory, organizational psychology, leadership studies, and the manufacturing industry. </p><p> The shifts in scholars' understanding of organizational dynamics were presented using Bowen's family systems theory and Lewin's systems theory is detailed in the narrative portion. This study used two mechanisms to study the family firm: oral histories (captured through open-ended interviews) and written documents and memoirs. Excerpts of written narratives also ground the interviews within the firm's historical and geographical setting. </p><p> This study documents the significance in understanding organizational culture to the development of a leadership model for family firms. This case study provides the opportunity to identify key attributes within a successful family firm. This firm has remained successful through multiple leaders over several decades within a challenging industry.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Oregon, 2006.<br>Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-61). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.