Transgenerational Family Therapies, Essay Example

The hit television show Malcolm in the Middle presents the case of a remarkably, comically dysfunctional family, the Wilkersons. The main protagonist, of course, is Malcolm himself. Although much of the information about the characters’ ages was not made explicit in the show, Malcolm is apparently twelve at the start of the show, and ages thereafter, season by season, more or less in accordance with the progression of real time. Malcolm is extremely intelligent: indeed, this is something that emerges in the pilot, and as a result he is put with the Krelboynes, the gifted students. He has a very keen memory as well. Gifted, Malcolm is also arrogant: he has a superiority complex, and tends to get himself in a great deal of trouble.

Reese is the troublemaker, bully, and ne’er-do-well of the family. He appears to be a couple of years older than Malcolm: probably fourteen at the start of the series. Reese is a stereotypical ‘problem child’ in many ways: impulsive, destructive, lazy, and often entirely thoughtless towards others, Reese is an actual school bully early in the series. However, he has hidden depths: Reese is an extremely talented cook, and over the course of the series he manifests signs of real intelligence.

Dewey, the youngest brother until the birth of Jamie near the end of season four, is the most eccentric of the lot. His age is not stated; he seems to be about seven at the start of the series. An imaginative child, Dewey is not always particularly in touch with reality. Although he is the baby for much of the series, he is often overlooked, and as the youngest he is often picked on by both Malcolm and Reese. However, Dewey makes up for his unenviable position with a remarkable cunning, often using stratagems to manipulate people into giving him what he wants. In a particularly notable episode, Dewey publically announces that his parents have chosen his birthday as the date for the birth of the baby, in order to shame Hal. He is also musically gifted.

Francis, the oldest brother, is away at military school for the first couple of seasons, due to his own history of destructive and thoughtless behavior. He seems to be sixteen at the start of the series, though again, there is some ambiguity. Like Reese in some ways, Francis is seen to be utterly irresponsible and defiant at first, but with less of a cruel and thoughtless streak: as Hal discovers, Francis has instigated rebellious behavior against Commandant Spangler for the purposes of helping other cadets. He has himself emancipated with the help of a shady lawyer, and then moves to Alaska in order to get a job. The job proves a source of drudgery, but he meets and marries Piama, and later gains better employment at a dude ranch owned by a German couple.

The parents, Hal and Lois, present a particularly interesting case. Lois turns forty in season one, and Hal seems to be about her age. Lois, in many ways, is the backbone of the family: she is domineering, quick-tempered, and not afraid to raise her voice and dole out harsh punishments to keep her sons in line. She has a particularly fractious, volatile relationship with Francis, though all of the boys fear her. Disciplinarian and matriarch of the family, Lois is also practical and a hard worker, and she provides the family with a great deal of direction, no matter how much they may hate it.

Hal, Bryan Cranston’s character, is very devoted to Lois, and typically defers to her. Where Lois is domineering, Hal is flighty, often undisciplined, and extremely indecisive. However, he can be short-tempered, even if he does not always display it: he is capable of standing up to Lois at least some of the time, when they fight. For example, in season one episode 5, “Malcolm Babysits”, Hal and Lois feud after the family is forced to move into a trailer while their house is being fumigated. By the end of the episode, Hal explains to Lois that the problem is they haven’t been able to make love, their standard approach to resolving their disputes. Hal can also be downright aggressive, as when he punched a clown for calling Lois “wide load”, thereby starting a particularly comical fight between the Wilkerson family and a number of clowns in the area, a batting rink.

A catalog of the issues besetting the Wilkerson family would be a monumental undertaking indeed. Much of the family’s communication is adversarial and agonistic: the three brothers who live at home, Reese, Malcolm, and Dewey, fight and feud on a regular basis, and all of the brothers have conflict-prone relationships with Lois. Hal, though a less strict parent, is often lacking in responsibility and good sense. Hal displayed a penchant for regressing into completely irresponsible, childish behavior when Lois was not around. Both Hal and Lois are rather absorbed with each other, and avail themselves of every opportunity to prioritize making love over the interests and well-being of their sons.

Bowenian therapy provides a framework for analyzing the Wilkersons’ behavior, and helping them to overcome some of the more problematic patterns. First of all, the Wilkerson family does not have a good balance of intimacy and autonomy needs: Hal and Lois are often not attentive enough, and Lois’s approach to discipline is harsh and frequently quite punitive. They have not gotten the knack of interdependence: instead of harmony and togetherness, their interactions with each other are frequently marked by bickering, especially between the boys (Nelson, 2003, pp. 256-258). A genogram of the family would show Lois as, in many ways, a kind of center of gravity: she clearly has more differentiation of self than Hal, who dotes on her and generally defers to her, and quite often imposes her will on the family. She is, in many ways, the center of the emotional system—and this is particularly true for her relationship with Francis, which again, is seen to be especially poor (Nelson, 2003, pp. 258-261; Titelman, 1998, p. 10).

There is a very clear family projection process underway in the relationship between Malcolm and both the parents. Hal and Lois are both very clear, again and again throughout the series, that they view Malcolm as special because of his gifted status. In the pilot, Lois herself comments on this, and in the episode where the family’s house is being fumigated Hal tells Malcolm that he believes Malcolm is the only one of the family who will ever amount to much, and expresses his hope that Malcolm will take care of his brothers (Nelson, 2003, p. 261). Another, also very clear family projection process, involves Reese: where Malcolm is the ‘intelligent, gifted one’, Reese is the problem one, and his parents relate to him accordingly. Similarly, Dewey is the often-overlooked one: the very youngest until Jamie, he has grown up in his brothers’ shadows, and his is a world of hand-me-downs and having to compete for everything at a disadvantage. In Dewey’s case at least, birth order is very clearly a part of the process in question (pp. 261-262).

The multigenerational transmission process could make a great deal of sense not only of the boys’ behavior in relation to Hal and Lois, but also of Hal’s and Lois’s respective behaviorisms (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, pp. 217-218). Hal comes from a wealthy background and a dysfunctional family of his own: his father has consistently avoided taking things seriously where the family is concerned, and the rest of the family are entitled and are shown to be very unpleasant towards Lois. Hal, then, has absorbed much of his dysfunctional behaviors due in no small part to his upbringing, which did not prepare him to be a stable and well-adjusted adult (p. 217).

Lois’s family presents an even clearer-cut case. Lois grew up in her sister Susan’s shadow, with her mother and her (presumptive) father favoring Susan and considering Lois to be effectively hopeless. Lois’s mother Ida is temperamental, unkind, and bigoted; her step-father Victor is coarse and callous. Lois herself underwent a remarkable transformation in personality after Francis was born: ever since, she has been loud-mouthed, pushy, and has needed to win every argument. In essence, Lois grew up neglected, and since becoming a mother has taken on a dominating personality in order to control her surroundings, a clear case of high autonomy needs and a profound reaction to a multigenerational transmission process (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, p. 217; Nelson, 2003, pp. 259-262).

The excessive conflict of the Wilkerson family seems to be a response to anxiety: Lois’s anxiety about the responsibilities she feels she must bear, and the boys’ efforts to look out for their own interests in a family that has taught them to be fractious and competitive (Nelson, 2003, pp. 262-264). Lois in particular appears to be an overfunctioner, having monopolized the power in the family in many ways. The goal of therapy, therefore, would be to help the Wilkersons ascertain more beneficial ways in which they could interact. They need to detangle their negative patterns of interaction, and this means finding alternatives to their current, anxiety-prone and fundamentally fear- and control-related, ways of interacting with each other. The use of a genogram might help them to understand how their patterns of interaction are deleterious, and therefore suggest grounds for improvement. Lois, for example, could try to change her position in the family by relinquishing some of the control she exercises over the boys through heavy-handed punishment and fear: this would force—or at least encourage—the boys to adapt to a situation in which they had more and more flexible options, and it would hopefully force Hal to show a little more decisiveness. Of course, for all of this to happen, the family would have to be honest with each other about what they really want and need: only by so doing could they hope to create a home in which the needs of all individuals are met without the conflict that has so characterized their interactions (pp. 266-267).

References

Goldenberg, I., & Goldenberg, H. (2013). Family therapy: an overview (8^th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooke/Cole Cengage Learning.

Nelson, T. S. (2003). Transgenerational family therapies. In L. Hecker & J. L. Wetchler (Eds.), An introduction to marriage and family therapy (pp. 255-296). New York: Haworth Clinical Press.

Titelman, P. (1998). Overview of the Bowen theoretical-therapeutic system. In P. Titelman (Ed.), Clinical applications of Bowen Family Systems Theory (pp. 7-50).