Bowen Theory Academy Webcasts with Dr. Kerr are now available for individuals to view. The lectures explicate Bowen theory concepts and illustrate the application of family systems thinking.

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Each of the three webcasts provides examples of families acting as emotional units. Click here to learn more

“The Hidden Life of Families: Relationships,Stress and Symptom Development” The full day Bowen Theory Academy conference video is now available to rent for your personal viewing.  Click here to learn more OR Click here to purchase.

Click here to watch Michael Kerr, M.D.’s recorded 90 minute Webcast: “The Neuroscience of Differentiation of Self.”

1) Click here to read and download Think Tank Presentations.
2) Click here to read and download BTA Articles

Michael Kerr’s new book is a much-needed update to Bowen theory.

Based on thousands of hours of observing families, Dr. Kerr finds Bowen theory’s basic concepts hold and adds some new observations. For readers, gaining knowledge about previously unseen aspects of family Interactions reveals the hidden life of families for all to see.

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Now available for purchase! Click here to purchase or for additional book details.

If you wish to contribute to BTA please click on the donate button or send it to: Bowen Theory Academy at 1523 Pripet Wood Ln in Islesboro, ME 04848 or click donate now.

Michael Kerr Director

Psychiatrist Murray Bowen radically departed from all other theories of human behavior by applying systems thinking to human emotional functioning and behavior. Unlike general system theories, which also attempt to apply systems thinking to human behavior, Bowen family systems theory contains specific knowledge that describes how all families operate as emotional units. For example, triangles are the fundamental building blocks of an emotional system, the smallest stable unit. Such knowledge is essential for change, for developing a new way of thinking and associated actions that benefit the system as well as oneself.
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Bowen theory is such a radical departure from cause-and-effect models of human behavior that people exposed to the idea predictably mix the two ways of thinking. People do not easily comprehend that the processes described in an individual model of human behavior can be incorporated into a systems theory, provided these processes are not viewed as causes; e.g. “intra-psychic causes” and “relationship causes”, or “genetic causes” and “environmental causes”.

Five long-term students of Bowen theory have founded the Bowen Theory Academy primarily to address the distinction between systems thinking and cause-and-effect thinking. Letting go of individual, cause-and-effect thinking does not involve discarding centuries of important factual discoveries about human behavior, but incorporates them into a broader framework. The five objectives and purposes of the Bowen Theory Academy listed below reflect the organization’s overriding goal. Read More: A View from the 21st Century

Monthly 90 minute streamed web cast lectures featuring Michael Kerr, M.D., Director Bowen Theory Academy or Kathleen Kerr, MSN, MA, CNS. Lectures are designed to explicate Bowen theory concepts and principles. Bowen theory concepts conceptualize the family as a network of interlocking relationships that can be described within a multigenerational framework.
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The Research Seminar serves as a stimulus and forum for those interested in the serious pursuit of natural systems ideas and in the systematic study of the human family. They include people with quite diverse interests, but with the common goal of developing and extending family systems ideas. People can use the seminars to move ideas towards publication.
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The Family History Database Project (FHDP) is a long‑term effort to collect and archive multigenerational family histories in a computerized database for use by qualified researchers. The objective of the FHDP is to record facts about the functioning of individuals over a number of generations and to make possible the investigation of the family variables affecting these individual’s functioning.
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The Bowen Theory Academy Think Tank began in October 2013 under the leadership of the Bowen Theory Academy Board. Its purpose is to bring together people knowledgeable about Bowen theory and interested in advancing the ideas to stimulate each other’s thinking by making brief presentations and discussing them. It meets once a month for an hour and a half using webcasting technology.
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