The Bowen Center

This talk will address the predominant theories of grief work in Western culture and in the world of grief therapy as well as the new research on bereavement based on the concept of resilience. These ideas will be contrasted with those in family systems theory in which the level of differentiation across generations is the framework for understanding a family’s response to the death of a loved one. The emotional shock wave – or the aftershocks in a family to a death – will be illustrated through a case study.

Anne S. McKnight, EdD, Director, The Bowen Center

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on December 10, 2015.

Defining a self in one’s family is a foundation for raising one’s level of differentiation. To be robust, this work includes defining or differentiating a self not only in one’s family but also within one’s profession, work system, and within the community and larger society. In this presentation Dr. Titelman will focus on defining a self in a significant professional relationship and his effort to define a self in two societal arenas: the Civil Rights Movement and the Palestinian/Israeli quagmire.

Peter Titelman, PhD, Private Practice, Northampton, MA

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on May 7, 2015.

One of Dr. Murray Bowen’s challenges in developing a science of human behavior was to seek effective ways to engage people to think theoretically about social systems. What difference would learning family systems theory make in their lives? Ms. Schara is affiliated with Leaders for Tomorrow, where she was founder and president and began the Oral History Project. She will present the scope of this ongoing project to date and its effectiveness in documenting the many ways people have used Bowen theory and benefitted through efforts to define a self.

Andrea Schara, LCSWA, Private Practice, Darien, CT and Washington, DC.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on October 8, 2015.

The formation of public policy almost always involves issues about which interested parties hold differing views of varying intensity about their resolution. Within the framework of Bowen Theory, those parties form a three-person emotional relationship system, the basic building block which is known as a triangle. The concept of the triangle in Bowen Theory describes the functioning of emotional systems, as well as the principles for managing such systems, particularly as the intensity of emotional process within the system increases around the presenting issues. Applying this knowledge to manage the resolution process will be the subject of this presentation.

Patricia Comella, JD is a faculty member at The Bowen Center.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on February 5, 2015.

Recent research has demonstrated that — like some human newborn infants — newborn rhesus monkey infants are capable of engaging in extensive face-to-face interactions with their mothers throughout their initial days and weeks of life. These face-to-face interactions are thought to facilitate establishing attachment bonds between the infants and their mothers. However, unlike the case for human infants, such interactions largely disappear during the monkeys’ second month of life and seldom reappear. Possible factors underlying this dramatic difference between these two species will be presented and discussed, including the likely need for the monkey infants to begin to differentiate their own social activities from those of their mothers as their locomotive and other physical capabilities rapidly mature.

Stephen J. Suomi, PhD is the Chief of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on April 15, 2015.

The differences in Christian and Judaic theology and practices have been considered the root of anti-Semitic behavior for generations. This cause and effect, narrow view of a complex, persistent, and widespread phenomenon is less than helpful and more than inaccurate in explaining the fundamental emotional process that has driven anti-Semitism throughout history. This presentation attempts to integrate the facts of biology, Bowen family systems theory, and history in an effort to bring greater clarity to a difficult and troubling aspect of human behavior. A broader, more factual view provides more options for addressing its presence to the benefit of all humankind.

Eileen B. Gottlieb, MEd is the director of the Family Center, located in Delray Beach, FL.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on June 13, 2013.

The transformation that accompanies the onset of motherhood and fatherhood in mammals is remarkable. Based on research with rodent and primate models, Dr. Kelly Lambert will discuss the neurobiological and behavioral aspects of these transformations. Her findings suggest that the transition from an animal focused on self-preservation to one that is responsive to the needs of other animals represents a significant transition in both neural and behavioral systems that enable parents to meet the many challenges associated with raising offspring.

Kelly Lambert, PhD serves as the Professor and Chair for the Department of Psychology at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on January 9, 2014.

Authors like Richard Russo and Anne Tyler tell stories we want to hear because they resonate with our own experience. They give us their best writing and, in return, our best reading recognizes that our own stories affect what we see and hear in the narrative. Dr. David S. Hargrove describes how Bowen family systems theory offers the reader a way to define oneself in relationship to the emotional field of the narrative, which strengthens the self and enhances appreciation of the literature.

David S. Hargrove, PhD serves as a member of the faculty at The Bowen Center.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on March 17, 2011.

Can science tell us whether blood is thicker than water? Are we particularly nice to our blood kin and, if so, why? In The Altruism Equation, Dr. Lee Alan Dugatkin tells the story of the fierce debate about altruism and kinship among evolutionary biologists, Before the debate was over, politics, philosophy, even religion, would enter the fray, complicating for close to a century attempts to find and settle on a scientific answer to a scientific question. Today that answer is known as “Hamilton’s Rule,” which states that relatives are worth helping in direct proportion to their genetic relatedness. The engine of goodness, Hamilton’s Rule suggests, lies in the family unit. This rule has been as influential on evolutionary biology as Newton’s Laws of Motion have been on physics.

Lee Alan Dugatkin, PhD is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Biology at The University of Louisville.

This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on February 10, 2011.