Reflections on Societal Regression

Post Date November 9, 2023
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Category Emotional Regression, Societal Emotional Process, Societal Regression, Stephanie Ferrera

Murray Bowen’s unique contribution to the science of human behavior was his ability to observe family interaction and to describe the underlying emotional process that governs all families to varying degrees.  He went on to describe an analogous emotional process in societies and introduced the concept of emotional regression: “When a family is subjected to chronic, sustained anxiety, the family begins to lose contact with its intellectually-determined principles, to resort more and more to emotionally determined decisions to allay the anxiety of the moment. …The societal concept postulates that the same process is evolving in society.”  (Bowen 1978, 386)

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The Composition of the Family System and Adaptive Success

Post Date May 20, 2022
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Category Annual Conferences, Differentiation of Self, Ethan Strauss, Family Emotional Process, Post Graduate Training

This presentation by Dr. Dan Papero focused primarily on how concepts related to adaptive success or failure apply to the family system.  Dr. Papero observes that the human family faces similar pressures to adapt to changes in the environment as all living things do.  One way that helps me to think about this concept is to relate it to the functioning of ant colonies that are discussed in Chapter 12 of “The Family Emotional System”, edited by Robert J. Noone and Daniel V. Papero.  The ant colonies clearly do not function as a collection of individuals working toward a common goal, but more as a single organism with each individual as more of an appendage.  The human family faces similar pressures from the environment, which require a response from the system if it is going to survive and thrive. 

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