ABSTRACT
Since their introduction in the 1950s and 1960s, multigenerational approaches to family therapy have occupied a central role in the field, and though they reflect varying nuances and emphases, their foundational themes remain consistent. Families are considered as ongoing multigenerational systems rather than discrete, nuclear entities. Multigenerational theorists assert that individuals carry with them unresolved emotional reactivity to their parents, leaving them vulnerable to repeat identical patterns in every new relationship they enter. According to multigenerational approaches to family therapy, the basic building block of complex social groups is the multigenerational family. Of the many multigenerational approaches to family systems that have been developed, arguably the most comprehensive is Bowen family systems theory. The concept of the nuclear family emotional system describes the basic relationship processes that govern where symptoms emerge in a family. Emotional cutoff is closely related to differentiation of self and reflects anxious maneuvering designed to regulate the extent of one’s proximity to others.
