Yes. Same to me.
For some reason it doesn't seem appropriate to inquire about his ancestory
in general, and more so while he is alive.
You mentioned that knowing about Hellinger's ancestory is integral to your
work. Would you please elaborate more on how?
Warmly
Amena
On Mar 6, 2016 2:42 AM, "Zaquie Meredith zaquie@xxxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk]" <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Patricia,
Why don’t you ask Bert Hellinger himself?
That to me sounds appropriate.
Zaquie C Meredith
www.zaquie.com
zaquie@xxxxxxxxxx
São Paulo, Brazil
www.facebook/com/zaquie.meredith
Linkedin.com/in/zaquie
youtube:zaquiemeredith
twitter:zaquiemeredith
From: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of "Patricia
Robertson pkrobertson22@xxxxxxxxx [ConstellationTalk]" <
ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Friday, March 4, 2016 at 12:20 PM
To: <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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 byMurray 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 Consulting*
*MA(CAM), BA(Hon), BCom, CPA, CMA*
*Student, Doctor of Social Sciences, Royal Roads University*
Integrative Wellness Practitioner, Educator, &
Body Focused Systemic Constellation Facilitator
403-474-0452
patricia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.peacefulpossibilities.ca
