ABSTRACT
The family of origin transmits powerful messages about gender—largely through the daily exchanges that mothers and fathers have with their sons and daughters. The impact of gender is most apparent by its gross neglect in family-of-origin therapy. Fathers appear to rapidly disappear:
The mother's first child was conceived when her life was unsettled and anxious... The child, a girl, was tense and fretful and required more than average mothering attention. A second child was born 18 months later. (Bowen, 1978, p. 426)
