The Thursday Professional Lecture Series

Mr. Keith Tignor has worked closely with the beekeeping industry for over twenty-five years. He is coordinator of the regulatory and assistance programs for beekeeping in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This presentation will include his recent research on the beekeeping industry that demonstrates how bees are a symptom of the environment in which they live. […]

As much as 8,000,000 tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year and this amount is predicted to double within the next decade. This number keeps increasing in pace with global plastics production. Left unchecked, by 2025 as much as 1 tonne of plastic may be in the ocean for every 3 tonnes of fin […]

When Dr. Murray Bowen died in 1990, he left a vast collection of materials, (including audio and videotapes, professional and “Dear Family” letters, original research records, drafts of papers, and presentations) that documents the thinking and research that led to Bowen theory. The Murray Bowen Archives Project is dedicated to making these materials available to […]

As the parental brain extends its attention from self to offspring, neural and physiological adaptations enhance emotional resilience and cognitive flexibility. Stress responsivity – associated with susceptibility to psychiatric illness and chronic disease – is dampened in males from both bi-parental and uni-parental primate models (e.g. owl monkeys and long-tailed macaques, respectively). Recent investigation of […]

Can Bowen theory give us a way to understand the enormous complexity of societal events that we observe or experience personally? Are these events, which have occurred throughout human history, enhanced through media bombardment? This presentation will apply concepts from Bowen theory such as differentiation, triangles, projection process, reciprocal functioning, and cutoff to a number […]

Clinical Public Health is the enhancement of health care by providers’ use of the principles of epidemiology and population health, health policy, health systems management, and community health. Changes in the structure, financing, and performance expectations of health care systems are creating unparalleled opportunities for improved individual and community health while drastically altering the roles […]

This talk will address the predominant theories of grief work in Western culture and in the world of grief therapy as well as the new research on bereavement based on the concept of resilience. These ideas will be contrasted with those in family systems theory in which the level of differentiation across generations is the […]

One of Dr. Murray Bowen’s challenges in developing a science of human behavior was to seek effective ways to engage people to think theoretically about social systems. What difference would learning family systems theory make in their lives? Ms. Andrea Schara is affiliated with Leaders for Tomorrow, where she was founder and president and began […]

Defining a self in one’s family is a foundation for raising one’s level of differentiation. To be robust, this work includes defining or differentiating a self not only in one’s family but also within one’s profession, work system, and within the community and larger society. In this presentation Dr. Peter Titelman will focus on defining […]

Recent research has demonstrated that — like some human newborn infants — newborn rhesus monkey infants are capable of engaging in extensive face-to-face interactions with their mothers throughout their initial days and weeks of life. These face-to-face interactions are thought to facilitate establishing attachment bonds between the infants and their mothers. However, unlike the case […]

The formation of public policy almost always involves issues about which interested parties hold differing views of varying intensity about their resolution. Within the framework of Bowen Theory, those parties form a three-person emotional relationship system, the basic building block which is known as a triangle. The concept of the triangle in Bowen Theory describes […]

Observations from clinical work with couples who have children reveal certain gender based relationship patterns consistent with other mammals that form pair bonds. Stress affects males and females differently, and they often show different patterns of behavior regarding social bonding. The psycho/behavioral systems involved in this intricate interplay between males, females, and offspring are rooted […]

Murray Bowen’s “Dear Family” letters contain numerous examples of his theoretical thinking about the concepts of Bowen family systems theory and its applications. Dr. Judith M. Bowen will present some of these letters that comprise one distinctive component of the Murray Bowen Archives. Many of these writings illustrate theory but also reveal Dr. Bowen’s keen […]

The family emotional system presents the combination of emotion and relationship. Emotion provides the energy and relationships provide the arena for the expression of emotion in behavior. The combination produces the dynamic ebb and flow of family life across time. Family emotional process lies at the heart of the family, an ever-present phenomenon shaping, shifting, […]

The differences in Christian and Judaic theology and practices have been considered the root of anti-Semitic behavior for generations. This cause and effect, narrow view of a complex, persistent, and widespread phenomenon is less than helpful and more than inaccurate in explaining the fundamental emotional process that has driven anti-Semitism throughout history. This presentation attempts […]

San Lucas Quiaviní is a Zapotec Community in Oaxaca, Mexico. Since the 1970s San Lucas has seen large scale migration to Los Angeles where about half the community resides. This presentation centers on the factors influencing parental language choices among migrants. With a substantial number of families settling or being raised in Los Angeles, family […]

Dr. Bowen defined eight concepts, two main variables, two counterbalancing life forces, numerous subvariables and one key assumption that make up the structure of Bowen theory. Randall T. Frost will examine how the parts fit together to make a coherent whole and how developments in the life sciences — such as research on the stress […]

Most people recognize resilience when they see it — the ability to “bounce back” from adversity or hardship. Is resilience “hardwired” into a person or is it a relationship process? What factors increase resilience in a person or a family? This presentation will pose some questions about the research on resilience over the last thirty […]

Dr. Anne S. McKnight will discuss addiction as an outcome of an emotional process through which family anxiety is both generated and managed. She will address the reciprocal interactions of the family that lead to the progression of the addiction as well as the anxiety that is unleashed when an addicted member stops using drugs […]

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders and result in considerable impairment across many areas of functioning. Dr. Bruce N. Cuthbert will present a perspective on studying emotions, particularly anxiety, empirically. This view will be exemplified by recent findings comparing emotional responses in patients with differing primary diagnoses of anxiety. Patients with greater levels […]