Hello Barbara,
Thank you for your suggestions. I do have Issue 7 of the Knowing Field and find
the details to be more extensive in Love’s Hidden Symmetry or on the Wiki site
created by the Constellation family. Hellinger’s own website Hellinger.com has
some basic details as well. At the current time, no speculations have been made
or will be made. Gathering information is my intent - and the intent behind my
question was whether anyone in the Constellation Talk community had any
experience or knowledge of Hellinger ever mentioning Toman and Bowen as
influences, whether in print or in person or otherwise. As I have learned
through this systemic work, we can have many influences in our lives that we
are not consciously aware of ourselves and yet they still impact our lives
significantly.
More than learning a detail or two that Hellinger might share with me at this
point in time (and I will attempt to communicate with him as it seems
relevant), I want to be open to learn through all the unconscious aspects
shared through his way of working with others. I believe that reading the
lines, and reading between the lines, of each of his books, and/or watching the
many DVDs I have of his work, is part of understanding the bigger picture, a
journey into understanding other perspectives of the man. I feel this is
reflected through constellations themselves. I find that we set up a
constellation and work within the The Knowing Field to gain new insight, a new
image, or a new perspective. Many times an individual has not connected one
thing, one situation, or one person to another in time or space.
It is somewhat like those moments of great inspiration when we think we have
developed a whole new concept or idea, only to discover that it was developed
by others two decades earlier. It just hadn’t hit our radar screen yet. We
mention our brilliant idea to a colleague or friend and they tell us we should
read up on so and so. I guess that is why the more we know, the more we realize
we don’t know. As others have suggested, perhaps Toman and Bowen were not
explicit influences of Hellinger, since they are not listed by him as the most
important influences in Love’s Hidden Symmetry, however, their influence may be
unrecognized. I have just realized myself how much the work of Toman and Bowen
lives within my work as a facilitator and I value this realization. This
doesn’t minimize the importance of the contributions made by Hellinger in any
way. I make room in my heart for each ancestor I discover.
I am, however, aware that we have our blind spots that keep us from looking at
some aspect of ourselves that may be revealed through interaction and
relationship with others. Each of us has one perspective on the world and the
more sources consulted (the members of Constellation Talk being valuable
sources) the greater body of perspectives that is gathered and the more rich
and detailed the picture that develops. My research is intentionally
transdisciplinary to bring together many perspectives from many fields and
disciplines. I don’t want to limit my ways of knowing the development of
transgenerational theory and transgenerational trauma.
Warm regards,
Patrica
On Mar 7, 2016, at 9:26 AM, Barbara Morgan theknowingfield@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I agree with Zacquie. More than appropriate, I think it is respectful and
necessary to at least attempt to ask Bert himself. If you get no reply then
you could refer to his brief biography in issue 7 of The Knowing Field.
Making speculations without checking them out is how history becomes
distorted.
Best wishes
Barbara Morgan
Sent from my iPhone
On 5 Mar 2016, at 14:45, "Michael Reddy michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [ConstellationTalk]"
<ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Hello Patricia,
Please do take a look at Jodorowsky and Costa's book METAGENEOLOGY--SELF
DISCOVERY THROUGH PYSCHOMAGIC AND THE FAMILY TREE.
This is a very well-developed theory and practice centered around
understanding and healing intergenerational influences. it apparently grew
up in Paris in the 70's. There are a lot of profound similarities to and
yet also substantial differences from Hellinger's synthesis.
If we truly acknowledge the larger collective "souls" that as individuals
are are part of, it should not be surprising that great ideas bubble up
simultaneously as the zeitgeist evolves.
Best,
Michael
Michael Reddy, PhD, CPC, ELI-MP
michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 610 469 7588
<tel:610%20469%207588>
www.reddyworks.com <http://www.reddyworks.com/>Relieving Chronic
Emotional/Physical Suffering using
Family Constellations | Core Energy Coaching | EFT | Shamanism
<HHFC Cover Thumb Signature.jpg>
<http://www.reddyworks.com/reddy-writes/michaels-books>
<http://www.reddyworks.com/reddy-writes/michaels-books>
On Mar 4, 2016, at 10:20 AM, Patricia Robertson pkrobertson22@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:pkrobertson22@xxxxxxxxx> [ConstellationTalk] wrote:
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/)
<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 <tel:403-474-0452>
patricia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <>
www.peacefulpossibilities.ca <http://www.peacefulpossibilities.ca/>
