Societal Emotional Processes

You have no doubt come to appreciate that in Bowen’s FST, people are not just autonomous individuals – rather they are part of something bigger – a family system.Later in life, Bowen speculated that beyond a family is an even larger system – societies also function as one emotional processes unit.

At various points in time, there is an excessive amount of anxiety in a society. Times like during a pandemic, extreme weather events, or economic turbulence. Do any of those sound familiar?

So what happens when a society has too much anxiety in its system? Bowen, writing in the 1960s and 70s, noted that societies always face challenges. But a healthy society is non-anxious and faces up to the dilemma of the moment, trying to find solutions and different ways forward. There is a willingness to stick at things over the long term.

Whereas in an over-anxious society, things can fall into ‘regression’ – where people try more so to reduce the anxiety of the moment, rather than tackle the problem.

The "symptoms" of societal regression include a growth of crime and violence, an increasing divorce rate, a more litigious attitude, a greater polarization between racial groups, less principled decision-making by leaders, the drug abuse epidemic, an increase in bankruptcy, and a focus on rights over responsibilities. [1]

Ouch! Doesn’t that sound too close to home? Bowen suggests a focus on anti-identity politics is counterproductive. He suggests it is possible to listen too much. It can cause those who feel hard done by to focus too much on their hurts. And the so-called victims can find a dysfunctional identity in responding to the guilt and anxieties of society at large.

I am not sure I completely agree with Bowen. But given he was writing 50-odd years ago, I find his thoughts prophetic, and bringing another dimension to some of the intractable problems of modern life.

[1] https://selfsymmetry.net/SEP.htm (03/11/22)

By Rev. David Rietveld