that Lily has not spoken to her brother for years, has breast cancer, and has a history of quitting her jobs.
Family relationships[ edit ] One of the advantages of a genogram is the ability to use colour-coded lines to define different types of relationships such as family relationshipsemotional relationships and social relationships. Emotional relationships[ edit ] Genograms may also include emotional relationships. These provide an in-depth analysis of how individuals relate to one another.
Colour-coded lines represent various emotional relationships that bond individuals together. Cut-off is characterized by a lack of communication, usually due to ongoing conflict, or a conflictual event Marlin, According to Bowenboth cut-off and fusion another term for enmeshment are responses to the anxiety generated within the family system. In fact, Bowen explains cut-off as a response to fusion; it occurs when the extreme closeness of fusion has become unbearable.
In Bob's family system, his paternal grandmother, Mary, is cut-off from her ex-husband Dan as well as her son, Mark Bob's father. Mary is the "common denominator" in these relationships, which suggests that she initiated the cut-off. This would be a tentative hypothesis based solely on genogram information.
Geograms are useful for giving the family of origin "explorer" a great deal of information, but of course, any hypotheses developed via genogram information must be tested in conversation with family members. These lines indicate that Sue has a fused relationship with her mother, Meg.