Is Psychology a Fad? Can a Person Really Change?
Why Bowen Systems Theory?
Reason One: Desperation
A decade after leaving graduate school and practicing psychology, I was done. I didn’t respect myself or my profession.
I’d been attracted to psychology because it was described as the “science” of human behavior. Yet, what I saw happening in the field was far from scientific. In fact, from what I could tell, psychologists were just making up things as they went along.
The explanation of why people behave as they do was certainly faddish and wildly subjective. One year, how a person functioned was “caused” by being the “adult child of an alcoholic”, the next year behavior was caused by “enabling”, the next year “toxic parents” entered the scene. The one thing that stayed constant was an emphasis on pointing to other people and events as causing current behavior. And, since a psychologist can not go out and “fix” these people other there…psychotherapy seemed rather pointless, beyond finding someone to empathsize.
With our “explanations” for behavior, psychologists covered all the bases. If a client ruminated about career, the cause was “fear of failure.” Either that, or “fear of success.” Depression and relationship problems? Either you didn’t get enough attention from your parents or you got too much.
But when a person’s functioning was presented as “caused” by his or her trip through the birth canal—I didn’t think psychology could sink further.
I was wrong. Along came the perfect “explanation” for troubled behavior. Repressed memories. Talk about setting up psychologists with the perfect scam. Now, no matter what your problem in living, there was an explanation…we just couldn’t tell you exactly what…since you repressed the memory. Psychology couldn’t go lower than rebirthing ceremonies which cured all your problems in a kiddie pool. Rebirthing–like those weekend seminars when they don’t let you eat or leave the room to pee—gives people an intense feeling experience and the illusion of having changed. Surely, psychology couldn’t go lower than this—treating intelligent adults like three-year-olds.
I was wrong again. Psychology could go lower. I had interns call me from their new jobs which included personal psychotherapy—calling to ask if I agreed with their therapists that repressed sexual abuse memories were behind their inability to get organized or finish writing a book?
The conversation was something similar to the following:
Former student: “I wanted to get your take on something. As you know, I sometimes have trouble finishing things.”
“Yes…”
“My psychologist says my behavior shows that I was sexually abused when i was a young child.”
“Okay…”
“My psychologist says that the reason I don’t remember being sexually abused is because it happened when I was an infant and hadn’t yet learned to talk.”
“Okay…”
“Also, the sexual abuse which ‘caused’ my helplessness was probably the way my older brother looked at me when I was an infant.”
“Whoa…say what?”
“I couldn’t defend myself from the sexual abuse of his lewd expression (since I was only a few months old) and that’s why I can’t succeed now.”
…I was re-thinking veterinary school when the Menninger Clinic held a series of classes on family therapy in our office. One was a presentation on Bowen Family System Theory. It was the first way of thinking about behavior that made sense and was based on solid science. I’ve spent the last twenty years studying and applying Bowen theory. So here we go.
Next, the second reason for going with Bowen Theory. The lovely spring afternoon when I had evidence a person could really change.
