The family projection process
A colleague I supervise this morning asked me how to understand the discrepancy they observe time & time again between a parent who is describing their child as highly symptomatic & in need of diagnosis - but the clinical team and school have not observed the severity of these symptoms & instead see a relatively well functioning child in other environments. Murray Bowen’s concept of the family projection process can be very helpful in understanding this presentation. It describes the primary way parents can transmit their emotional problems to a child. This in turn can impair the functioning of the child & increase their vulnerability to clinical symptoms. It follows 3 steps: Parent focuses on a child out of fear that something is wrong with the child. Parent interprets the child’s behaviour as confirming the fear. Parent treats the child as if something is really wrong with the child. The parent can then focus on ‘fixing’ the child & clinical servi...