ABSTRACT
Joanne Bowen family systems theory represents a scientific study of human behavior, with emphasis on the family. Murray Bowen was deeply committed to the development of a science of human behavior. In the 1950s, the family movement in psychiatry significantly contributed to the existing approaches for studying the family. The development of Bowen theory represents an effort to move toward a science of human behavior and the principal basis of its development was the research study at National Institute of Mental Health. In conceptualizing the family as an emotional system, Bowen captured its link to all of life and the inherent struggles and adaptiveness involved in its functioning. The family diagram is a method of data collection based on Bowen family systems theory. It is essential that one understands the principles that govern emotional systems as delineated in family systems theory in order for the information on the family diagram to be meaningful.
