MANAGING FAMILY S EMOTIONAL CLIMATE Fusion the tendency to submerge one s sense of self in relationships with others thereby losing the distinctions among emotional and intellectual functioning self and other Emotional oneness pervasiveness for all family members EXAMPLE Intensely positive emotional periods birth of child wedding Degree of closeness is so great that a family member might believe that they can feel one another s aspirations dreams Fusion Levels 1 Basic Fusion Differentiation 2 Functional Fusion Differentiation one s state of being one s self control can decrease in stress o Context specific financial and psychological autonomy o Coherent personal identity capacity for intimate relationships as an adult o Emotional immersion attachment limits one s ability to determine individuality DIFFERENTIATION o Individual the ability of family members to express their own individuality and act autonomously while remaining emotionally connected to others the degree to which difference is tolerated in the family o Family o Typical Differentiated Behaviors Able to perform independent activities o Poor Differentiation or Individuation results in excessive need for approval or o Emotional Reactivity degree of conflicting feelings guilt anxiety mistrust and anger emotional support toward one s parents o CRITIQUES Cultural barriers special education diagnoses abuse situations Triangulation A three person interaction in which the tension and conflict experienced between two persons is displaced onto a third party Third person can be a person hobby job or any item that can redirect tension in a relationship away from the pair to another source EXAMPLE Wife making complaints about husband to a child Coping with Fusion Deal with invisible loyalties Family ledger generational account system of psychological D G A G debts owed harkens back to concept of reciprocity in social exchange theory o EXAMPLE Reciprocity of fairness vs a legacy of mistrust and resentment results in an unsettled debt that may need to be paid by future generations Generate benign assumptions in family life Avoid emotional cutoff detaching oneself from the family of origin in an effort to avoid fusion and maintain control over one s sense of self Genogram Examining one s family history to gather insight into the existing patterns of a family system differentiation and how they effect adjustment of individuals in the family
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