Bringing Systems Thinking to Life ─ Expanding the Horizons for Bowen Family Systems Theory

In a single volume, Bringing Systems Thinking to Life: Expanding the Horizons for Bowen Family Systems Theory presents the extraordinary diversity and breadth of Bowen theory applications that address human functioning in various relationship systems across a broad spectrum of professions, disciplines, cultures, and nations. Providing three chapters of never-before-published material by Dr. Bowen, the book also demonstrates the transcendent nature and versatility of Bowen theory-based social assessment and its extension into fields of study and practice far beyond the original psychiatric context in which it was first formulated including social work, psychology, nursing, education, literary studies, pastoral care and counseling, sociology, business and management, leadership studies, distance learning, ecological science, and evolutionary biology. Providing ample evidence that Bowen theory has joined that elite class of theories that have enjoyed broad application to social phenomena while lending credibility to the claim that Bowen theory is one of the previous and current centuries’ most significant social-behavioral theories. More than a “resource manual” for Bowen theory enthusiasts, this book helps put a new great theory on the intellectual landscape.

Ona Cohn Bregman, MSS is former Associate Professor of Social Work at Syracuse University, chair of the School of Social Work’s Family Mental Health Concentration from 1991 to 1998, selected by her peers as "Social Work Teacher of the Year" in 1995, and served on the board of the Syracuse Family Center from 1991 to 2001. The Mental Health Association of Onondaga County, NY awarded Ms. Bregman their Lifetime Achievement award in 2007. She continues a small clinical and supervisory practice in semi-retirement.

Charles M. White, MSW, is a social work field liaison with Rutgers University’s School of Social Work (New Brunswick and Newark, NJ) and a doctoral student at Rutgers University’s Graduate School—New Brunswick. He also maintains a Bowen theory–based psychotherapy, supervision, consultation, and training practice in Westfield, NJ. Since completing his Master of Social Work degree at Syracuse University in 1992, Mr. White has held several clinical, supervisory, research, and adjunct academic positions.