The Bowen Center

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. Keith Tignor, State Apiarist, Office of Plant Industry Services, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Richmond, VA This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on October 6, 2016.

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 scientists, scholars, historians, clinicians, and the interested public.  An overview of the project will be offered, with emphasis on future plans.  Dr. Joanne Bowen, President of The Murray Bowen Archives Project, will be present during the discussion following the presentation to answer questions. The Rev. Carol Jeunnette, PhD, Executive Director, The Murray Bowen Archives Project, Williamsburg, VA This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on May 5, 2016.

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 fish. Plastic inputs are ultimately an unintended consequence of rapid development, with the most concentrated inputs currently generated from several rapidly developing economies. These plastic inputs to the ocean not only harm marine environments and fisheries, but also impose economic costs to cities in the form of public health, water contamination, and quality of life. New analyses led by Ocean Conservancy and its partners to conclude, however, that global plastics input to the ocean can be significantly reduced with a portfolio of initiatives customized to geographies where ocean plastic inputs are largest. To achieve these reductions, we need to combine an accelerated build-up of waste collection infrastructure and treatment technologies with a broader circular economy approach which represents a necessary redesign of the future, where industrial systems are restorative and regenerative by intention and design. Nicholas Mallos, MS, Director, Trash Free Seas Program, Ocean Conservancy, Washington, DC This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on June 2, 2016.

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 maternal rat brains suggests that potential mechanisms of this effect are related to reduced responsiveness of stress hormone receptors and enhanced neuroplasticity markers in the hippocampus, a brain area known for integrative emotional functions and learning ability Kelly Lambert, PhD, Faculty, Joan Brock Professor of Psychology, Department Chair, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, VA This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on April 13, 2016 (Wednesday).

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 of turning points in history in an attempt to develop a model for analyzing and understanding these events. Katharine G. Baker, PhD, Private Practice, Northampton, MA This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on March 10, 2016.

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 of individual providers and the health systems in which they practice. Accordingly, medical professional education should provide the requisite knowledge and skill-building, so tomorrows’ providers will be equipped to provide excellent care to individual patients. This enhances their ability to understand and perform their role as community health leaders to identify and mitigate community-level determinants of health. Lawrence Deyton, MSPH, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Public Health, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on February 4, 2016.

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 framework for understanding a family’s response to the death of a loved one. The emotional shock wave – or the aftershocks in a family to a death – will be illustrated through a case study. Anne S. McKnight, EdD, Director, The Bowen Center This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on December 10, 2015.

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. Titelman will focus on defining a self in a significant professional relationship and his effort to define a self in two societal arenas: the Civil Rights Movement and the Palestinian/Israeli quagmire. Peter Titelman, PhD, Private Practice, Northampton, MA This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on May 7, 2015.

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. Schara is affiliated with Leaders for Tomorrow, where she was founder and president and began the Oral History Project. She will present the scope of this ongoing project to date and its effectiveness in documenting the many ways people have used Bowen theory and benefitted through efforts to define a self. Andrea Schara, LCSWA, Private Practice, Darien, CT and Washington, DC. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on October 8, 2015.

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 the functioning of emotional systems, as well as the principles for managing such systems, particularly as the intensity of emotional process within the system increases around the presenting issues. Applying this knowledge to manage the resolution process will be the subject of this presentation. Patricia Comella, JD is a faculty member at The Bowen Center. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on February 5, 2015.

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 for human infants, such interactions largely disappear during the monkeys’ second month of life and seldom reappear. Possible factors underlying this dramatic difference between these two species will be presented and discussed, including the likely need for the monkey infants to begin to differentiate their own social activities from those of their mothers as their locomotive and other physical capabilities rapidly mature. Stephen J. Suomi, PhD is the Chief of the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on April 15, 2015.

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 to integrate the facts of biology, Bowen family systems theory, and history in an effort to bring greater clarity to a difficult and troubling aspect of human behavior. A broader, more factual view provides more options for addressing its presence to the benefit of all humankind. Eileen B. Gottlieb, MEd is the director of the Family Center, located in Delray Beach, FL. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on June 13, 2013.

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, and guiding the response of individuals and the family unit to the challenges of daily living. Dr. Daniel V. Papero will describe family emotional process more fully, attempting to define more clearly what it is and how it works. Daniel V. Papero, PhD, MSSW is a faculty member at The Bowen Center and maintains his consulting practice in Washington, DC. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on September 26, 2013.

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 sense of humor and powers of observation. Judith M. Bowen, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Birmingham, Alabama. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on June 12, 2014.

The transformation that accompanies the onset of motherhood and fatherhood in mammals is remarkable. Based on research with rodent and primate models, Dr. Kelly Lambert will discuss the neurobiological and behavioral aspects of these transformations. Her findings suggest that the transition from an animal focused on self-preservation to one that is responsive to the needs of other animals represents a significant transition in both neural and behavioral systems that enable parents to meet the many challenges associated with raising offspring. Kelly Lambert, PhD serves as the Professor and Chair for the Department of Psychology at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, VA. This lecture was recorded live at The Bowen Center in Washington, DC on January 9, 2014.