Patricia,
You've done a lot of research! I'm talking off the top of my head here,
without considering this topic for many years. I had not heard Hellinger speak
in the past, of Toman or Bowan in discussing those who influenced the original
development of his work. As far as I know, he was in a doctoral program when he
became aware of Art Janov's work with Primal Scream, and this tends to be what
he identifies as contributing to the next itieration of what he learned from
his work with the Zulus - it had a profound effect and I believe he dropped out
of his PhD. program as a result - can anyone verify that - Chris?? During his
time in the US, he came in contact with other innovative family therapists, as
mentioned in Love's Hidden Symmetry, but I do not believe he delved into the
academic study of the family system. He was already moved by his own
observations and internal responses in working in groups on this topic, and his
work went on from there. His identification of the energy of the morphic field
- though he did not state it as such - and his use of that as a tool, I believe
was a unique departure from previous family group work; and his work evolved
from that to where it is today.
Good luck on your research and studies, and keep us posted!
all the best, sheila
Sheila Saunders RN, LMFT
828.273.5015PO Box 1011Weaverville, NC 28787www.systemicfamilysolutions.com
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 08:20:49 -0700
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Ancestry of Hellinger's Family Constellations
Hello to the Systemic Constellation community,
I have been
researching the ancestry of Bert Hellinger’s Family Constellations and looking
at the context in which the work developed. It felt like an appropriate thing
to do in my doctoral studies as I have been a genealogist since childhood and
now I am working with
client’s as a body focused systemic constellation facilitator. I want to
understand the long ancestral line behind Hellinger’s Family Constellation.
Honouring the ancestors is integral to my work and has been a lifetime practice
for me. The short
version of my question is to anyone with deep roots in the development of
Hellinger’s
Family Constellation work: Was the early work on Family Constellation by Walter
Toman in 1961 and the Family Systems Theory of Murray Bowen in 1976 influential
in Hellinger’s work?The longer
version:At the back
of Love’s Hidden Symmetry: What Makes
Love Work in Relationships (pp. 327-330), Hellinger with Weber and Beaumont
list many of the major influences in the work of Hellinger and the development
of family constellations. Included on the list are influences such as Martin
Heidegger and Richard Wagner, the complete works of Freud, and the Zulu peoples
of South Africa, from whom he gained the “awareness of the relativity of many
cultural
values,” “perceiving systems in relationships,” “human commonality underlying
cultural diversity,” ritual as “common human experiences,” “the goodness of
cultural and human variety,” and “the validity of doing things in different
ways” (pp. 327-328). From the
field of psychoanalysis influences mentioned are the group dynamics and
psychoanalysis of Primal
Therapy, Gestalt Therapy, Transactional Analysis of Eric Berne; the Family
Therapy and Family Reconstruction of Virginia Satir; whose work was greatly
influential for the development of the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) of
Richard
Bandler and John Grinder, also an influence, the invisible bonds of Ivan
Boszormenyi-Nagy, the hierarchy of families of Jay Haley; Hypnotherapy of
Milton Erickson, Provocative Therapy of Frank Farrelly, the Holding Therapy of
Irena Precop, and others (pp. 327-330). Walter Toman and Murray Bowen are not
mentioned as influences. I do not come
out of a background in psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, or psychology, rather my
work flows through peacebuilding and conflict analysis and management in the
world, and I’m interested in the work of Albrecht Mahr, Hellinger, and others
using
systemic constellations in peacebuilding.Since
training in Hellinger’s Family Constellations in 2011, I have never heard
anyone mention the Family Constellation work of Walter Toman in 1961 as an
Associate Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University. I have his book on
Family
Constellation: Theory and Practice of a Psychological Game, published by
Springer Publishing Company in New York. His book includes a great amount of
information on family dynamics including 8 sibling positions, 64 relationships
with parents, portraits of family constellations, intermediary sibling
positions, and other symbolic notation and quantitative treatment of “major
aspects of family constellation.” Toman states that he spells out how all
individuals will recognize themselves, their families and friends in the book,
including relationships and conflicts, and how we do think of these things,
however, it tends to be done “tacitly, implicitly, and without much
order.”While his
work does take a different direction and emphasis on sibling order in
relationship,
it does not seem totally unrelated to Hellinger’s work either.Toman’s work
has been revisited many times over the years with American and German editions.
Toman, Walter. (Fall/Winter
1994). Family constellation theory revisited: Part 1. Family Systems. Georgetown
Family Center. Dept of Psych. University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany. (4th
American edition and 4th and 5th German editions).
(Publication years 1968, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1988a, 1989b, 1991a).My
assumption is that Toman’s Family Constellation work was available in Germany
during the development
of Hellinger’s principles.As well, I am
also looking at the pioneering work on Family Systems Theory of Murray Bowen
(1976)
and others such as Assagioli (1972) and Framo (1982). Bowen developed the
Family Diagram or early genogram expanded upon by McGoldrick and Gerson in
1985.Kerr, Michael E. (2000), (One family’s story: A
primer on Bowen theory. The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family), a
long-time colleague of Bowens,
describes the Family Diagram developed by
Murray Bowen and how it “symbolizes a living organism, the
multigenerational family emotional system. More than any other symbol, the
diagram announces the necessity to shift paradigms, to move beyond an
individual cause-and-effect model to a multiperson systems model in
understanding human behavior. The diagram represents much more than genealogy;
it represents the profound emotional connections between the generations.
People are born and die, but a family’s past lives in the present.” “Diagrams
are read chronologically from left to right: the oldest child in a family
appears
furthest to the left. Males are represented by squares, females by circles.
When information about people’s lives is collected, added to the basic diagram,
and thought about, one’s own life takes on a new understanding and meaning.”On
the
Bowen Center website (http://www.thebowencenter.org/theory/),
it states that Murray Bowen, the psychiatrist who pioneered family systems
theory, which includes the 8 interlocking concepts listed below, is “a theory
of human behavior that views the family as an emotional unit and uses systems
thinking to describe the complex interactions in the unit. It is the nature of
a family that its members are intensely connected emotionally. Often people
feel distant or disconnected from their families, but this is more feeling than
fact. Families so profoundly affect their member’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same “emotional
skin.” People solicit each other’s attention, approval, and support and react
to each other’s needs, expectations, and upsets. The connectedness and
reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in
one person’s functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the
functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in the degree of
interdependence,
but it is always present to some degree” (para. 2). Anxiety spreads
“infectiously” among family members, and the family member that “does the most
accommodating literally “absorbs” system anxiety and thus is the family member
most vulnerable to problems such as depression, alcoholism, affairs, or
physical illness” (para. 3).Bowen
Family Systems Theory (8 features): 1)
Triangles ( Fusion
and distancing, Adequate
and inadequate spouse) 2)
Differentiation
of Self (Fusion
or differentiation, Solid
self or pseudo self, Intellectual
and emotional functioning) 3)
Nuclear
Family Emotional Process ( Maternal
conflict, Inadequate
or over adequate spouses, Emotional
divorce)4)
Family
Projection Process (Child
focus or triangle child, Identified
or designated patient, 5) Multi
Generational Transmission Processes (Compounding
effects,Schizophrenia)6)
Sibling
Position (Toman’a
Family Constellation. Based on the publication of Walter Toman’s first edition
of Family Constellation: It’s Effect on Personality and Social Behavior,
published in 1961)7)
Emotional
Cutoff (Family
of Origin)8)
Emotional
Processes in Society (Societal Regression)It seems to me that Toman’s and
Bowen’s work seem to show up
as very influential in Hellinger’s Family Constellations. Toman reveals that the
ancestral lines of his work are Freud, Adler, and Jung. Can anyone elaborate on
whether Walter Toman’s and Murray Bowen’s work and principles were influential
in the development of Orders
of Family in Hellinger’s phenomenological practice of Family Constellations
that are revealed within the greater system of The Knowing Field?Is there any
acknowledgement of this earlier work? I also
wondered if part of the reason Hellinger did not copyright his way of working
with Family Constellations is because Family Constellation already existed
before he used the label? I have heard that the reason is because he wanted
Family
Constellations to expand and evolve with each new facilitator as they added
their own background and experience to the work. Any thoughts to share?Kind
regards,Patricia
Peaceful Possibilities ConsultingMA(CAM), BA(Hon), BCom, CPA, CMAStudent,
Doctor of Social Sciences, Royal Roads UniversityIntegrative Wellness
Practitioner, Educator, &Body Focused Systemic Constellation Facilitator
403-474-0452
patricia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.peacefulpossibilities.ca
