See how genograms map emotional dynamics: close, distant, hostile, fused, and cutoff relationships. The Thompson family demonstrates triangulation, enmeshment, and patterns therapists identify in clinical practice.
While standard genograms show family structure (who married whom, who are the children), emotional genograms add a critical layer: the quality of relationships between family members. Developed as part of Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory, emotional relationship mapping reveals patterns that drive presenting problems in therapy.
The Thompson family illustrates how emotional patterns such as triangulation, emotional cutoff, and fusion repeat across generations. Robert and Margaret's hostile marriage creates anxiety that is absorbed by their children in different ways: Claire becomes a parentified mediator, Daniel fuses with his mother, and Grace becomes emotionally invisible. These patterns mirror dynamics from the grandparent generation, demonstrating Bowen's concept of multigenerational transmission.
Standard genogram notation uses specific line styles to represent different emotional qualities in relationships. Each type reveals a distinct dynamic between two family members.
Double parallel lines
A warm, supportive bond. Both individuals feel emotionally connected and communicate openly.
Robert and daughter Claire share a close relationship built on mutual respect.
Dotted line
Emotional withdrawal or avoidance. Individuals rarely share feelings or may avoid contact.
Robert and his brother Neil have been emotionally distant since a business disagreement 15 years ago.
Zigzag line
Open conflict, frequent arguments, or antagonism between family members.
Robert and Margaret have an openly hostile relationship with recurring arguments about parenting.
Triple parallel lines
Over-involvement where boundaries are blurred. Individuals may lose their sense of self.
Margaret and son Daniel are fused, with Margaret over-involved in his decisions and emotional life.
Line with perpendicular breaks
Complete emotional disconnection. One or both parties have severed the relationship.
Robert's father Harold cut off contact with his own brother decades ago, a pattern now repeating.
Zigzag with double lines
An intense love-hate dynamic with both deep attachment and frequent conflict.
Claire and Daniel have a close-conflictual sibling relationship, deeply bonded but frequently clashing.
Three generations of the Thompson family showing emotional relationship patterns, triangulation dynamics, and intergenerational transmission of relational styles.
The Robert-Margaret-Claire triangle is the central dynamic. Robert and Margaret's hostile relationship creates anxiety that draws Claire in as mediator. She is close to Robert and close-conflictual with Margaret, absorbing marital tension.
Margaret and Daniel's triple-line relationship represents fusion. Margaret is over-involved in Daniel's emotional life, making decisions for him and using him as her emotional confidant, a role reversal that undermines his autonomy.
Harold (Gen 1) cut off his brother decades ago. His son Robert (Gen 2) is now distant from his own brother Neil. The genogram reveals that emotional cutoff is the family's learned response to conflict.
Grace (age 15) has dotted-line (distant) relationships with both parents. While Claire absorbs attention as mediator and Daniel receives it from Margaret's fusion, Grace is overlooked. This is a common pattern in high-conflict families.
Beverly (grandmother) and Margaret (daughter-in-law) have a fused relationship that bypasses Robert. This cross-generational coalition undermines the marital subsystem and reinforces the Robert-Margaret hostility.
Oliver (Neil and Janet's son) has close relationships with both parents, providing a structural contrast. Neil's nuclear family shows healthier differentiation, highlighting how different family branches can develop different emotional patterns.
The central emotional dynamic in the Thompson family is the triangle formed by Robert, Margaret, and their eldest daughter Claire. According to Bowen theory, when anxiety rises in a dyad (the hostile Robert-Margaret marriage), a third person is drawn in to stabilize the system. Claire has been recruited as the mediator/peacemaker, a parentified role that forces her to manage her parents' emotions at the expense of her own development. Her close relationship with Robert and close-conflictual relationship with Margaret reflect the split loyalty inherent in triangulation. A therapeutic goal would be to de-triangulate Claire by strengthening the marital subsystem boundary.
Margaret and Daniel's fused relationship represents a failure of differentiation, one of Bowen's core concepts. Daniel (age 19) has difficulty making autonomous decisions, expresses his mother's opinions as his own, and becomes anxious when separated from her. Margaret uses Daniel as an emotional substitute for the intimacy missing in her marriage. This enmeshment impedes Daniel's normal individuation process and will likely affect his ability to form healthy romantic relationships. The genogram makes visible how this fusion serves a systemic function: it manages Margaret's anxiety about the hostile marriage.
The emotional cutoff pattern spans three generations. Harold (Gen 1) cut off his brother and models emotional withdrawal as the response to conflict. His son Robert (Gen 2) has become distant from his brother Neil following a business disagreement, replicating the pattern. Robert is also emotionally distant from his wife Margaret, using withdrawal rather than engagement. If this pattern continues, Generation 3 children may also adopt cutoff as their primary coping strategy. Grace's emotional invisibility may already represent an early form of self-imposed cutoff.
Grace occupies the structurally precarious position of the "invisible child." While Claire and Daniel absorb most of the family's emotional energy (Claire through triangulation, Daniel through fusion), Grace receives neither positive attention nor negative conflict engagement. Her distant relationships with both parents may protect her from direct involvement in family dysfunction, but the lack of connection also puts her at risk for depression, acting out, or seeking intense relationships outside the family to compensate. Therapists should assess whether Grace's distance is self-protective or neglectful.
Place all family members across three generations using standard genogram symbols.
Evaluate the emotional quality of each significant relationship: close, distant, hostile, fused, or cutoff.
Apply the appropriate line style between each pair. Look for triangles and cross-generational patterns.
Step back and analyze repeating patterns: cutoffs, triangles, fusions, and invisible members across generations.
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