You may want to consider Virginia Satir, Borzomenegy Nagy, and Alejandro
Jodorowsky.
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2016 11:12 AM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ConstellationTalk] Ancestry of Hellinger's Family
Constellations
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
828.273.5015
PO Box 1011
Weaverville, NC 28787
www.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/)
<http://www.thebowencenter.org/theory/%29> , 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
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