Volume 9 Number 3 | Spring 2025

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

The opening line of Charles Dickens book, A Tale of Two Cities, has been coming to my mind often in the first quarter of 2025. I have also been thinking about Stephanie Ferrera’s blog post, “Reflections on Societal Regression”, which was published in CFC’s The Systems Thinker in 2023. Both authors were writing about how the best and worst of human behavior can be happening during the same period of time. Stephanie brings Bowen theory into my ruminations, providing access to Dr. Bowen’s natural systems thinking framework. The Bowen systems framework goes beyond cause and effect, and either/or thinking. I am reminded that families or societies progress and regress during the same time periods. 

Stephanie Ferrera points out in her introduction that “Murray Bowen’s unique contribution to the science of human behavior was his ability to observe family interactions and to describe the underlying emotional process that governs all families to varying degrees. He went on to describe an analogous emotional process in societies and introduced the concept of emotional regression”, described in his 1978 book, Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. (link)

Stephanie also discusses societal regression in the context of Bowen theory’s concept of societal emotional process, including a quote from a letter Michael Kerr, MD wrote May 1, May 2023 to the New York Times: "Perspective on a World On Fire: Societal Regression", Stephanie quoted Dr. Kerr as Follows:

“Viewing the world’s current anxiety and despair through the lens of emotional regression can provide a calmer perspective. It can help us get beyond blaming others, e.g., realizing that regressions cannot be blamed on any one segment of society, such as the government. Viewing families and societies as relationship systems makes possible a level of increased objectivity about human behavior.” (link to Kerr's full editorial)

The more I think about Stephanie’s blog, the more I am reminded that humans, as all forms of life, have evolved by continuously responding to the environment in which they live, by adapting, quite innovatively. I don’t pretend to know the path ahead, but I am confident that planet earth and all its extraordinary beauty and many diverse life forms will be around long after this challenging period in history has been forgotten.

Leslie Ann Fox, MA

Registration is Open for the 42nd Annual Midwest Symposium

Established in 1984 with Murray Bowen as the sole presenter, this hybrid symposium, now offered both in person and via Zoom, has evolved into a dynamic annual event. Since 1990, Dr. Dan Papero, PhD, a Bowen theory consultant and faculty member at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC, has served as a principal speaker. Each year, the symposium also features a guest scientist from disciplines such as neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, or primatology, ensuring that Bowen family systems theory remains firmly rooted in the natural sciences.

The guest scientist for this year’s symposium is Dr. Patrick McGowan, Professor of Cell and Systems Biology, Psychology and Physiology at the University of Toronto. His area of research has been the epigenetic mechanisms of neurodevelopment and behavior, particularly on the impact of adversity during early development. Dr. McGowan’s specific focus is on the role of parental factors early in life in altering the function of genes involved in the response to stress. In addition to presentations on both days by Dr. Papero and Dr. McGowan, the symposium also features short papers by Bowen theorists and clinicians, covering research, clinical applications, and interdisciplinary integration.

Limited availability discounted registration available here through April 7th

Keynote Presentations:

Presentations from Daniel V. Papero, PhD, LCSW

"The Adapting Family: Regression and Resilience"

A number of researchers have noted that family units differ in the effectiveness of their response to challenge and adversity (Hill, 1949; McCubbin and Patterson, 1983; Figley and Kaiser, 2013). In general, the research has described characteristics of family units that reflect more and less effective adaptation.

Bowen’s research led him to propose that the family functioned as a unit, system or organism. This perspective allowed him to investigate how the unit operated or responded to various challenges that required an adaptive response. Beyond characteristics, Bowen gradually described the processes of response that shape adaptive behavior.

This talk will focus on the functioning of the family system as the unit faces change and challenge. The objective will be to describe the processes within the family system as they operate in response to conditions encountered both within the family system and external to it. The talk will be divided into two parts. Part 1 will discuss how a decline in functioning effectiveness occurs (regression). Part 2 will discuss the processes of resilience that allow a family unit to maintain or even improve adaptive competency.

Part 1: Regression

a. Functioning

b. Impediments to functioning

c. Regression

Part 2: Resilience

a. Individual

b. Nuclear family

c. Extended family

Presentations by Patrick O. McGowan, PhD

Presentation 1: "Stress, Maternal Care, and the Neuroimmune Basis of Socio-Emotional Development"

This presentation will explore how early-life stress and variation in maternal care shape offspring stress reactivity and socio-emotional development, with a focus on underlying neuroimmune and epigenetic pathways. Drawing on findings from rodent studies, Dr. McGowan will describe how maternal stressors alter caregiving behaviours and the stress physiology of offspring. This includes changes in microglial activation and oxytocin signaling in brain regions involved in emotion regulation. His work has shown that early caregiving environments influence long-term patterns of gene expression, in part through stable epigenetic modifications. These findings highlight how early relational experience becomes biologically embedded and transmitted across generations, with implications for understanding the family as a dynamic, adaptive system.

Presentation 2: "Individual Differences in Early-Life Experience: Genetic Contexts and Developmental Outcomes"

This talk will focus on how natural variation in maternal care received by individual offspring, even within the same litter, contributes to differences in stress sensitivity, social behaviour, and gene expression. Drawing on work in outbred rats, Dr. McGowan will present evidence that offspring behaviours—such as vocalizations and activity—both influence and are shaped by the level of care they receive. His group has shown that this variation is associated with differences in the expression of stress- and oxytocin-related genes in key brain regions, and that these effects are moderated by individual genetic background. Epigenetic processes, including DNA methylation, appear to mediate these long-term outcomes. This research illustrates how early-life social experience and genetic context interact to shape behavioural development across the lifespan.

For a complete program description including schedule see: CFC program page.

CFC Faculty Presents

Terri Pilarski, MDiv, MSW will be presenting at the Healthy Congregations 2025 Annual event on May 19th.

Terri will present on “Church Leadership, Adaptation, Bowen Theory and Culture.” Terri’s workshop will explore Congregational leadership through Bowen Systems Theory concepts of Differentiation of Self and Emotional Process in Society, and Culture.

Healthy Congregations is an ecumenical and interfaith organization offering leadership training for congregations applying Bowen theory. The keynote speaker at this year’s Annual event is Kathleen Smith, presenting on “Managing Self: Taking Your Own Pulse First”. For more information about the event go to the following link.

What are CFC Faculty Reading and Viewing This Season?

Sydney Reed, MSW highly recommends two movies, one old I Never Sang for My Father, and one new Ghost Light.

The recent death of Gene Hackman reminded me of how much I’ve enjoyed seeing him in a great variety of movies over the years. When CFC was just beginning, we purchased a copy of his movie, I Never Sang for My Father because it so clearly illustrated the Bowen theory concepts, which we discussed in the post graduate training program and at other conferences and workshops. It was a wonderful description of the intensity of the emotional response in a family at a time of death. No one really wants the end to be filled with anger and resentments, distance and cutoff. Yet, how can individuals manage themselves and their feelings while being open to the feelings of others in such a way as to lower the intensity of the situation? more >

A recent movie, Ghost Light offers another example of a family dealing with loss. A road construction guy who works a jack hammer outside a community theater is pulled into their group when they need another actor for their play. Diversity, inclusion and equity describes the ethos of the wonderful cast of ordinary people who help each other find their way through Romeo and Julliet.

A friend described the movie as sad but sweet. I don’t want to say too much about the plot as it enfolds in a very meaningful way in the course of the movie. My husband and I watched it and then had a rich and lengthy discussion about how the different characters managed their feelings and thoughts, and how that affected the other people in their lives. Ordinary people just like us. more >

Cecilia Guzman, MS recommends The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture

The Social Genome by Dalton Conley is a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of how our genes and social environments interact to shape life outcomes. Conley blends insights from sociology, genetics and evolutionary biology to challenge the nature-versus-nurture debate, arguing instead for a dynamic interplay between biology, family, and society. Well written, the book raises important questions about inequality, education, opportunity, and the constraints placed on free will in the age of genomic data. It’s a must-read for students of Bowen theory interested in the future of social science, psychology, and how our understanding of human development is evolving.

more >

Stephanie Ferrera, MSW recommends Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s new book: Father Time A Natural History of Men and Babies

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy begins her new book with this statement:

“Fathers today are more likely than in the past to find themselves encouraged, permitted, sometimes wanting, at other times compelled, to take on new roles caring for babies and very young children. Some even become primary caretakers of newborns with no mother involved at all.” 

New research on how care of infants changes the bodies and brains of men who are intimately involved with babies is challenging our old assumptions that it is the mother who is best suited for this job. After all, she has a nine-month head start with gestation, birth, lactation and being first in line to respond to a baby’s cry. Endocrinologists have measured changes in hormone levels, and neuroscientists have seen changes in the brains of caretakers, and now they are finding that these changes take place in caretaking men the same as they do in mothers. 

Hrdy, a noted evolutionary biologist and scholar of parental behavior in primates and mammals as well as humans, found herself “profoundly puzzled” by these new studies. As a mother and grandmother, she had made her own parenting decisions guided by the assumption that mothers were first and foremost when it comes to child care.  

Her book takes us through science, evolution and history in search of the roots of the propensity for nurturing by males. She sees the younger generation of fathers who are far more involved as a promising development, and notes that it will take certain changes in our culture to keep up moving in this direction. She concludes: “Sufficiently loosen social norms by which men are judged, respect men for diligent nurturing, and in the case of the baby being cared for, return the favor with intoxicating adoration, and men find themselves motivated to care more. Economic considerations, egalitarian ideals, and new definitions of manhood help set the stage.” This book is a delightful read, science writing at its best. more >

Kelly Matthews, MSW recommends the latest book by Celeste Ng Everything I Never Told You

This book does an excellent job of showing the Bowen concept of emotional distance as a pattern, (outward appearance or symptom, we might say), in a family, and what someone is thinking on the inside. The author deftly expands on the character’s thinking and all they are not saying. I would highly recommend this book, and it’s just under 300 pages, so not such a big commitment. more>

Save the Date for CFC’s Summer Conference

Friday, July 25, 2025

This one-day summer conference will take place in person at the Carleton Hotel in Oak Park, IL. The topic is Bowen Theory’s concept of cutoff, featuring a presentation on cutoff as experienced in the multigenerational transmission process, with case study presentations by CFC faculty and a guest presenter who made a compelling documentary film on the impact of bridging cutoff in his own family.

For more information, contact Stephanie Ferrera, MSW.

Volume 9 Number 3 | Spring 2025

CFC News published quarterly

by the Center for Family Consultation

Founding Editor: Leslie Ann Fox

Managing Editor: Lisa Friedstein

Production and Design: Justin Reed

Consulting Faculty: Sydney Reed, Lisa Moss, and Terri Pilarski