on each other and take pleasure in each other's misery.
Defines a good relationship between two individuals in which there is mutual respect. Defines a close relationship friendship between two individuals in which they share affection or esteem and engage in mutually helping behaviors. Defines a relationship of deep friendship, where two individuals share a deeper level of understanding, trust and affection than with most other friends.
Defines a relationship of strong positive affection between two individuals, arising from kinship or recognition of attractive qualities. Defines a relationship of intimacy, passion and commitment based on sexual instinct.
Defines a relationship of distrust between two individuals where at least one of the individuals lacks confidence in the other's intentions. Symbols[ edit ] A genogram is created with simple symbols representing the gender, with various lines to illustrate family relationships. Some genogram users also put circles around members who live in the same living spaces. Genograms can be prepared by using a complex word processor, or a computer drawing program.
Emotional Relationships - GenoPro
There are also computer programs that are custom designed for genograms. Genogram symbols will usually have the date of birth and date of death if applicable above, and the name of the individual underneath. The inside of the symbol will hold the person's current age or various codes for genetic diseases or user-defined properties: Content[ edit ] A genogram can contain a wealth of information on the families represented. It will not only show the names of people who belong to a family lineage, but how these relatives relate to each other.
For example, a genogram will not only show that a person called Paul and his wife Lily have three children, but that their eldest child was sent to boarding school; that their middle child is always in conflict with her mother; that their youngest has juvenile diabetes; that Paul suffered from depressionwas an alcoholicand a philosopher; and 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.