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Mechanisms

of Family Homeostasis

By ALFRETIA. MEZSSER
GOOD THEATRICAL REPERTORY COMPANY contains actors who are flexible and who can step into almost any role. Everyone has to know every part. Sex and age may make little difference. If one member of the group falls ill, somebody doubles for him and fills his role. In a similar way, the family functions as a repertory company. There are many roles to be filled, and roles are assigned depending on the capacity of each member. An important part of childhood development is the rehearsal for future adult roles. Family roles can be grouped under performance (instrumental) roles, and emotional (expressive) roles. Performance roles include the breadwinner, the homemaker, the protector, the gardener, the chauffeur, and the handyman; emotional roles include the leader, the nurturer, the arbitrator, the sexpot, and the jester. Society parcels out role functions in a similar way. There are schoolteachers, policemen, firemen, physicians, lawmakers, and the like. The presence of each of these specialists allows the rest of society to concentrate on its own tasks. In an emergency, each specialist is backstopped by the population at large. For our purposes here, a family is defined as an organization or a social institution in which there are certain family feelings or family behavior: sharing of goals and identity, concern for provision of certain physical and emotional needs of its members, and patterns of response which do not require the individual to be constantly on guard. Or, put another way, a family is a group of two or more people who call themselves a family, and who significantly affect one another. The family is a group with continuity: a past, a present and a future. Every family has a demonstrable life cycle: a male and a female join into a married pair, then become parents with the birth of children, the youngsters grow into adolescents and eventually leave home, and the parents then revert to their primary roles of husband and wife. At each point in the life cycle, some role shift is necessary, and this change usually precipitates a crisis. Take, for example, the situation of the frontier family. Every member of the family was a vital part of the group. The father tilled the soil and hunted; the mother took care of the animals and reared the children; the older son helped his father as much as he was able; the younger child helped mother and stayed close to home. In the event of an Indian attack, the roles were clear: the father handled the riile, the mother loaded the guns, the older boy was the lookout, and the younger child was the messenger. Rut if the father were struck down during battle, a change in roles became necessary. The older boy became head of the house, and the mother and
From the Family Studies Laboratory, Georgia Mental Health Institute, Atlunta, Ga. ALFRED A. MESSER,M.D.: Professor of Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.; Chief, Family Studies Laboratory, Georgia Mental Health Institute, Atlanta, Ga. 380 COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHIATRY, VOL. 12, No. 4 (JULY), 1971

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younger child had to honor this change in command for the safety and survival of the group. If the family were adequately prepared for the role change, the crisis might be surmounted without too much difficulty. If, on the other hand, the mother and father had browbeaten the older child continually, there would be trouble when he had to assume the fathers role. HOMEOSTASIS In order to understand how a family maintains its equilibrium, the concepts of homeostasis and adaptation have been borrowed from physiology. Jackson* was among the first to apply this concept to family study. The word homeostasis has undergone considerable broadening since it was introduced by the physiologist Claude Bernard2 a century ago. Homeostasis, to Bernard, was the steady state in body chemistry and body physiology which is maintained by a complex interplay of dynamic forces. The term family homeostasis suggests that a family, too, has ways of maintaining internal equilibrium so that it is able to fulfill its tasks and, after a conflict, return to reasonable equilibrium. Just as there is a limited range of functioning of the physiological mechanisms, so too is there a limited range of psychological functioning in the family constellation. To use an analogy from physical medicine, suppose a knee is injured. The part may be splinted in a number of ways to facilitate healing: the person can favor it by hobbling around; he can use a crutch; he can bandage the part; or a plaster cast can be applied. In all of these instances, a new way is found of getting around which gives the injured part a chance to heal. But if a plaster cast is used and left on too long, some of the muscles may atrophy and permanent disability results. The pain is gone, but there is loss of function. In other words, the same mechanism that has been used for sphnting (and healing) the knee has now become responsible for pathology. With atrophy of the lmee muscles, the individual is in worse shape than when the knee was first injured. The family also finds way of dealing with stress until there can be resolution and return of equilibrium; various family homeostatic mechanisms can be utilized. Some capacity for functioning is sacrificed in order to control a conflict, and, like the plaster cast, splinting can result in permanent loss of function. There is a change in structure. When such a family is confronted by a new stress, its functioning will be even more impaired than before the splinting. For instance, the family in which the members have withdrawn from each other emotionally and are cold and aloof will be in bad straits when they have to function as a unit. The family homeostatic mechanisms have been extended to a point where permanent change has taken place in the role relationships or in family functioning. The homeostatic mechanisms range from complete reversibility to irreversibility, and appraisal of the status of these mechanisms is the major focus of family diagnosis by the psychiatrist3 In family diagnosis, the therapist opens up areas of splinting for exammation and tries to help the family prevent fixity or permanent atrophy of functioning. In essence, this may be what is fostered in the emphasis on corn-

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munication. By talking and confrontation, the family itself can explore these areas. Family homeostatic mechanisms described in this paper tend to be used temporarily until healing (of the conflict) takes place. The crucial test is whether or not the mechanism remains open-ended: Can there be resolution of the conflict and reestablishment of full functioning? A FAMILY
CONFLICX

Family conflicts abound in daily life. For instance, there is an argument about whether the family should go to a movie. Some members want to go, others do not. There is a flurry of accusations, and one member of the family may sulk and perhaps another go off to his room. They are aware, however, that this is not a permanent impairment. By the next morning, things are back to their usual state and the family has righted itself from the temporary upset. Suppose, however, there is a conflict which involves a more significant change in the life cycle, including a role change. A 17-year-old girl comes home one day and breathlessly tells her parents that she has been invited to a football weekend at a distant college. The parents immediately respond with a flat no because they are afraid she might become involved in antisocial behavior, anything from drinking to sex. As they talk more, the mother may begin to feel that perhaps her daughter is mature enough to have this kind of independence; on the other hand, she shares many of her husbands fears. The younger daughter of 14 immediately states that the older sister should not be allowed to go because this is a privilege to which she is not entitled. The family argument may ensue for the next few hours. It can end when the parents join together and firmly say no, assuring their daughter that there will be other such trips, and perhaps offering a substitute excursion; or it can end if they say she can go under certain. conditions, such as being properly chaperoned. If, however, there is no agreement on what course to pursue, the conflict can continue for many days and the family may then utilize any of various homeostatic mechanisms to control the conflict. It should be remembered that these are temporary mechanisms and are analogous to the splinting that takes place when a body part is injured.
FAMILY HOMEOSTATIC MECHANISMS

Scapegoating In the example of the adolescent girl who wants to go on a football weekend, the family may label her a rebel. She then becomes the cause of all the conflicts in the family. By labeling her as such, the conflict is controlled, and the parents anxiety about restricting her is reduced. This mechanism of scapegoating works temporarily, but does not allow for resolution. If similar conflicts arise, chances are that the girl will again be labeled the rebel. In studying scapegoating patterns in a family, it is important to know something about the circumstances of the parents own primary home. A woman who feels herself deformed in any way, physically or emotionally, may blame her children for this deformity. Often enough, she unconsciously picks out a

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child born at a particularly stressful time of her life, or a child with physical characteristics which unconsciously remind her of someone in her past. This child then becomes the family scapegoat. Nowadays, with perhaps as many as a third of all marriages being consummated when the bride is pregnant, the first child may be marked for scapegoating, since the parents may have doubts as to whether the marriage would have taken place were it not for the pregnancy. If a second child is born, he or she may become the desired and adored one.4 Scapegoating is often the mechanism used in authoritarian families. In this family, the members are ruled by an unbending and intolerant parent. They feel helpless when it comes to rebelling against this authority. When one member finally does rebel, even in a childish or immature way, the other members may label him as the rebel, the fool, the black sheep, or, as indicated here, the scapegoat. The other family members can then project onto this scapegoated individual all the rebellious impulses they harbor in themselves. At the same time, they punish him for his rebellion. It is fairly certain that the member who is scapegoated will maintain himself in this role as rebel, and the rest of the members can be counted on to keep punishing him. Again, the problem is that there is never any resolution of the basic problem, i.e., the authoritarian nature of the family. Scapegoating has lessened the tension, but has blocked the way to solution of family problems. The family says of the scapegoat, He is different from me. It is only at a rare moment of insight that an individual says, He is the same as me. Then there is growth. It is not unusual for one member of a family to offer himself as scapegoat or sacrificial lamb in time of stress. During a family argument, a mother may end the disagreement by simply stating, Its all my fault, I have a headache, lets go to bed. The other members can say, Shes cranky today. By using this simple technique, the mother ends a bitter discussion. On the other hand, if she makes this statement in order to choke off discussion of a topic that stirs unbearable anxiety within herself, the motivation is entirely different. In our present era, with more mental health facilities available, problem children are frequently referred for psychological testing or psychiatric examination. Once this has been done, and the parents have paid $75 for the evaluation, the child who might well have been a scapegoat for family conflicts is now more than ever fixed in this role. It is necessary, then, for the professional to structure his evaluation in such a way that the family is part of the procedure. Formation of Defensive Alliances or Coalitions

In the same situation of the adolescent girls wanting to go on the football weekend, let us suppose that the mother joins with her daughter and says that she can go, even though the father demurs. An open debate follows in which mother and older daughter are on one side, and father and younger daughter on the other. These alliances can go into other areas: the father and the younger child may go off hiking together, or the mother and the older girl can go off on a shopping spree. Again, alliance formation occurs temporarily in most families when one member comes to the support of another during

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an argument, but it generally withers away. It is a routine part of family life. However, permanent defensive alliances seriously impair the adaptive functioning of a family. The fact that a teen-aged girl is invited for a football weekend heralds a change in role relationships in the family: there is now another adult woman around, one who can go out and travel and be sought after by men. This change in role may precipitate a con%ict. In some instances, a mother may be threatened by the competition she feels from another adult female, or the father may feel incapable of handling the demands brought on by having another woman in the house. The father might also react with a recrudescence of the earlier feeling of attraction toward his daughter (or the mother toward an adolescent son). These natural sequences in the family, whether labeled Oedipus complex, Electra complex, or family romance, are readily observable. A contemporary problem that arises due to the great numbers of reconstituted families brought about by divorce, desertion, and remarriage is the relationship of stepparents and stepchildren. The incest taboo is not as viable in these instances. There is no blood relationship, nor is there the family feeling resulting from many years of living together. Thus, the stepparent and stepchildren may look upon each other primarily as friends and acquaintances rather than as parent and child. The Greek myth of Phaedra is relevant. Phaedra was a young Cretan woman who married the much older King of Athens, Theseus. She fell hopelessly in love with Hippolytus, the Kings son by an earlier marriage. The young man spumed her love, and the drama has a tragic ending, with the death of all three. Thus, the Phaedra complex is to the stepparent-stepchild relationship what the Oedipus and Electra complexes are to the natural parent-child relationship.5 The less secrecy and furtiveness there is about natural family romance, the less problem there will be in either natural parent-child relationship or stepparent-stepchild relationship, Withdrawal of Affect Here the family handles its problems by ceasing emotional communication with each other, and con%icts remain unresolved. In the situation of the adolescent girl and the football weekend, let us say that both mother and father refuse to give in, and gradually the family members become cold and distant. They go through the motions of family functioning, but there is no significant emotional contact among them. These are the families who routinely control a conflict by withdrawal of affect and become mechanized, rigid families, often like military organizations. In such a family, the children may go through the mother in order to talk to the father, or vice versa. There is a chain of command of which the family may be totally unaware. Sometimes members seek affective contacts outside the family (see loosening of the family unit, below). In marriages where affective emotional contact between the mates is withdrawn, both can look for substitutes. However, the young child has no such opportunity because of his age. Also, in families where the parents are still completely tied to their own families and are excessively dependent on

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them for acceptance and reassurance, the second generation offspring may be shortchanged in terms of emotional interaction with their own parents. One of the tip-offs of the rigid family bent on controlling affect is the lack of humor or nonsense in the family. A sense of humor is vital for relieving conflict. Healthy families know that within the confines of the family, there are certain freedoms allowed which are not tolerated elsewhere. In the family which does not have to keep its guard up between the members, foolishness or irrationality can sometimes creep in. For instance, a man pressured and harried by business worries may suddenly announce to his wife in late autumn that they will not celebrate any holidays at the end of the year. The mans reaction is transient and nonstereotyped. If the wife is aware of her husbands emotional state at the time, she can pass this off lightly, or she can smile and say that perhaps they can discuss it later on in the year. Trouble arises if the woman takes the remark seriously and is not flexible enough to apply a measure of lightheartedness to the situation. Designation of One Member as Family Hsaler In this homeostatic mechanism, one family member is designated as umpire or healer, and contacts the dissenting parties to arrange a truce or reconciliation. Sometimes it is a grandparent or other person of the extended family regarded as the wise one. Sometimes it is the family doctor, often the druggist In some families, the family healer is designated the white sheep. The family therapist takes advantage of his knowledge about the role of family healer to involve a recalcitrant family member in therapy. Often, one person in treatment may insist that the spouse or parent absolutely refuses to be involved, even though the therapist sends repeated inviations. However, if this same resistant member is approached on the basis of coming in to help the person being treated, it is doubtful that he will refuse to participate. The healer or helper role is very much in evidence in society. Alcoholics Anonymous is a good example. The helper role can be effective in teaching reading skills to slow readers. When sixth grade slow readers are asked to help third grade slow readers, the older ones seem to benefit even more than the younger ones. Being in the helping situation does something in terms of enhancing self-esteem or self-awareness. Thus, it may be wise to avoid putting only gifted children in one class together. There are times when an umpire or healer from outside the family is necessary, but if the family resorts to an outside healer for every minor conflict, then when crisis supervenes and the healer is not available, the family may become disabled. The woman who must call her neighbor across the street every time there is an argument with her children may find that she is really thrown when a major decision impends. Loosening the Family Unit In this situation, the family members deal with conflict by seeking emotional contacts outside the family. Home is a hotel where all the tenants are on good, but not intimate, terms. The children may spend most of their time with peers; the mother and father may find substitutes for family activities in

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friends and clubs, In effect, each member finds a new family for himself. The difference between this mechanism and the mechanism of withdrawal of affect is that here the members remain on relatively good terms with each other when they are together. Discharge of Tension by Repetitive Fighting Everyone occasionally blows his top. Who doesnt rant about traffic jams, or the high cost of living? The wise family learns not to make a federal case out of minor incidents or temporary disagreements. In some families tensions are discharged continually by verbal abuse or physical battles. The tension is drained off and allows for emotional harmony among the members. The theme of the fight may be repetitive, and almost any area of conflict can be poured into this mold. In one family, it was moving. The man had a fine business opportunity far away from the familys hometown and insisted that they move, even though the wife was reluctant to leave the area where her parents lived. Afterwards, when any problem or conflict arose, the wife blamed it on their having moved, The mechanism of fighting is often seen in marriages in which the husband and wife have never had a satisfying dependency relationship. Resentment about lack of fulfillment, as well as the expectation that nurturant needs will never be fulfilled, brings about rage and aggression. Thus, whenever such an individual establishes a close and trusting relationship, the old fears and angers are stirred up and this anxiety is discharged by fighting. These are the gruesome-twosome marriages. Resignation or Compromise In this mechanism, the members give up their needs for assertion, for affection, or for emotional expression. In the family ruled by an obsessive father with an iron fist, the mother and children may make any compromise in order to keep peace and harmony in the family. This, then, becomes a frozen family. Or, one partner may give up his or her needs for sexual fulfillment in order to accommodate the others sexual inhibitions. In the situation cited above of the adolescent girls wanting to go off on a football weekend, she may eventually give up any idea of this venture, or any bold act of assertion, in order to keep peace and harmony in the family. The Family Myth This mechanism overlaps some of the other homeostatic mechanisms. Some families handle conflict by invoking a stated belief in the same way that folklore is used to overcome certain anxieties in society. A child controls some of his inner fears by projecting these fears outside, on a bogeyman. The family myth, Children are seen but not heard, dispenses with conflicts which may arise when parents feel that their children are pushing them or demanding too much. The myth is then part of the family identity, and as such goes unchallenged.6 In one family, the myth was that if anyone drank, he would become an alcoholic. Investigation of the family revealed that one relative, a distant uncle,

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had been a chronic alcoholic and had brought great shame upon the family. His behavior was far out of line with the idealized behavior of this group. The concern generated by this aspect of family history created anxiety, and it was controlled by the family myth: if anyone drinks, he becomes an alcoholic. Who enforced the myth? In this family, it was the mother. She was allowed to control the behavior of all the family members, the husband usually acceding to her authority. However, he did not go along with the alcohol myth and, further, there was evidence that he resented this myths concerning the familys conduct. The matter came to a head when their adolescent boy was beginning to go out at night with his friends and some of the boys sneaked an occasional can of beer or glass of wine. The woman handled this problem by invoking the family myth, and a head-on conflict resulted. The boy was attempting to assert himself in typical adolescent fashion, but had to deal with the values and myths he had learned in his family. The anxiety generated in the boy by this conflict might have been handled by his becoming passive and retreating from these activities. But, as often happens in adolescence, he was going through a period of rebelliousness and lashed out against parental authority. In this instance, the boy was being covertly supported by his father, and so continued the rebellion. One tragic consequence of this particular type of myth results from teaching young girls that drinking goes hand in hand with sex. If you go out and drink, youll surely fall into bed with the first boy who asks you. What happens, then, when a young girl is at her senior prom with all of her friends, and someone breaks out a bottle of champagne? How could she not take a drink under these circumstances? And once she does take a drink, she is an easy mark for sexual adventure; in her mind, she had already crossed both bridges when she took a drink.
SUMMARY

When there is anxiety and conflict in a family, various homeostatic mechanisms can be utilized to keep the conflict within tolerable limits and to restore the family to a functioning equilibrium. Some of these mechanisms are: scapegoating of one member; formation of defensive alliances or coalitions between family members; withdrawal of affect among family members; seeking of a family healer; loosening the family unit by dispersion of its members; discharge of tension by repetitive arguing and fighting; resignation or compromise: one or more members surrenders personal assertion; Invocation of a family myth to prohibit rebellious behavior. Like physiological homeostatic mechanisms, psychological homeostatic mechanisms can cross the line and become pathological, resulting in loss of function. With more stress, more and more homeostatic mechanisms are brought into play; but the point of no return can be reached, resulting in permanent disablement, loss of function, or dissolution of the family.
REFERENCES 1. Jackson, D. D.: The question of family homeostasis. Part 1. Psychiat. Quart. 31:79, 1957. 2. Bernard, C.: Introduction of Experimental Medicine. Macmillan, 1927. to the Study New York,

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3. Messer, A. A.: The Individual in His Family: An Adaptational Study. Springfield, Ill., Thomas, 1970. 4. Vogel, E. F., and Bell, N. W.: The emotionally disturbed child as the family scapegoat. In Bell, N. W., and Vogel, E. F. (Eds. ) : A Modern Introduction to the

Family. Glencoe, 5. Messer, A. plex. Arch. Gen. 213-218, 1969. 6. Ferreira, A. myth. Amer. J. 1967.

Ill., Free Press, 1960. A.: The Phaedra ComPsychiat. (Chicago). 21: J.: Psychosis and family Psychother. 21:186-197,

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