ABSTRACT
B. Biesecker and L. Erby suggest that adaptation studies for living with a chronic disease should “expand beyond individual to include family adaptation.” The “up-close” view of family emotional process permits a degree of specificity and nuance to be built into the theory that is often missing from research into concepts such as resilience, adaptability, coping, and self-esteem. Solid self serves as a fire wall that can halt an anxiety-driven regression in functioning in a family as well as in other emotional systems. Differentiation of self interlocks with the concept of emotional cutoff in Bowen theory. The life pattern of cutting oneself off from one’s family of origin is determined by the way people handle their unresolved emotional attachments to their parents. L. Brooks’ hypothesis, derived from theory, proposed that the parental triangle with each child distributes anxiety to the children unevenly through the family projection process.
