In Family and Self: Bowen Theory and the Shaping of Adaptive Capacity, Robert J. Noone examines Murray Bowen’s theory of the family and its clinical application.

Family psychiatrist and researcher Murray Bowen’s effort to contribute to a science of human behavior, led to the famous Family Study Project at NIMH and the later development of a formal theory of the family and its clinical application. Later known as Bowen theory, it represented a radical departure from the individualistic paradigm predominant in psychiatry. Following Bowen’s mode, this book examines the interplay between the individual and the family in shaping the differential capacity to effectively adapt to life’s many challenges.

Chapter 1: Family and Adaptive Capacity

Chapter 2: Toward Emotional Objectivity

Chapter 3: The Brain and Self-Regulation

Chapter 4: The Family as an Adaptive System

Chapter 5: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Family and the Brain

Chapter 6: The Impact of Stress on the Family and Adaptive Capacity

Chapter 7: Family and the Multigenerational Process

Chapter 8: Emotional Cutoff and the Establishment of a Self in Each Generation

Chapter 9: A Systems Theory of the Family

Chapter 10: Family as a Pathway toward Enhanced Adaptive Capacity