Family and Self

Robert J. Noone is faculty at the Center for Family Consultation and the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family.

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

This book is for the helping professionals and family members who have ever questioned the efficacy of using an individualistic paradigm to solve life’s problems. Robert J. Noone tackles important myths about Bowen Theory and situates the human family as a self-regulating system. He pulls the reader out of cause-and-effect thinking and into a Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST) world that is grounded in natural systems, evolutionary theory, and includes the biological basis of development. This book is a light at the end of the tunnel for new and seasoned helping professionals.

— Carrie Elizabeth Collier, The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family

Through decades-long clinical work and engagement with science, Noone has developed an understanding of the human family that is second to none. In this volume he combines clinical experience, knowledge of science, and his own journey in a way that both engages and informs the reader. He presents clear theoretical points, describes the relevant science, and illustrates with anecdotes from his clinical and research experience. Family and Self is an important and very much anticipated contribution to the growing literature on applying, validating, and extending Murray Bowen’s observations and theoretical work. It will be a valuable contribution to anyone interested in the human family, in the science of the human, and in family psychotherapy!

— Daniel V. Papero, The Bowen Center for the Study of the Family

I see Family and Self as an important milestone in Noone’s long effort to follow this principle in the service of building a science of human behavior. He has integrated thinking from diverse sources while maintaining the distinctions and has provided extensive references to research from many areas of science. The book will serve as a catalyst and inspiration for further research. For this reviewer, the book leaves no doubt that a solid theory of the family will be the keystone in building the broad conceptual framework needed to understand human behavior.

— Family Systems