New England Seminar on Bowen Theory presents

Planet Earth 2011

Exploring Mankind’s Relationship with the Natural Environment 

• Oct. 14; registration, 8:30 to 9 a.m.; conference, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Lurie Conference Room, Higgins University Center
• Conference cost: $75; $50, students and retirees; free to Clark students and faculty

Joanne Bowen, Ph.D., will be the guest presenter for the final of four conferences devoted to societal process and the environment. Dr. Bowen is Curator of Zooarchaeology at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and Research and Adjunct Associate Professor in Anthropology at the College of William and Mary.

Her presentation, Human Subsistence Systems: Family Households as Emotional and Economic Units of Society, will build on Dr. Murray Bowen’s understanding that the human connection with the earth sustained life. She will examine the family as an economic unit and how it exists in relationship to the land and the society of which it is part.

Additional Presentations

• The Locavore Movement as a Response to Societal Anxiety, Katharine G. Baker, Ph.D.
• A Study of the Emotional System – Man’s Quest for Resources, Ann V. Nicholson, R.N., M.S., C.S.
• Understanding Population Growth and Differences in Food Supply, James B. Smith, M.S.
• Some Thoughts About How Technological Innovation Might Fuel Societal Regression, Patricia A. Comella, J.D.
• The Unequal Development of Differentiation of Self, Laurie Lassiter, Ph.D.

Visit the New England Seminar on Bowen Theory online for more information. For questions or help with financial need, email Barbara LeBlanc or call her at  603-486–8760

Certificate of Attendance available on request

About Bowen Theory

Murray Bowen, MD, developed a theory of human behavior based on a view of the family as a multigenerational system governed by the same laws of nature that govern all of life. He considered individual life to be guided in large part by what he termed the “emotional system.” His concept of “Differentiation of Self” described the capacity of an individual within a family to be responsible both for self and for the overall good of the group in the face of emotional pressure.

Knowledge of Bowen theory and its applications to family life, organizational functioning, and societal processes provides a unique approach to solving human problems based on the effort of the individual to manage self within the relationship system.

In the early 1950’s, Bowen conducted research at the National Institute of Mental Health where he studied entire families on a psychiatric ward. He was able to observe how the family functions as a unit and how an individual may function as part of a larger emotional system without being aware of it. Bowen’s book, Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, is a collection of his articles from 1956 to 1976. His theoretical perspective has been widely applied in a number of different fields including religion, business and organizational management, and mental health.

About the conference sponsor

The New England Seminar on Bowen Theory provides a regional forum for the study of Bowen theory and its life science orientation, fostering original work, and offering educational programs and conferences.