enmeshment
{{Short description|Concept in psychology and psychotherapy}}
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Enmeshment is a concept in psychology and psychotherapy introduced by Salvador Minuchin to describe families where personal boundaries are diffused, sub-systems undifferentiated, and over-concern for others leads to a loss of autonomous development.H. & L. Goldenberg, Family Therapy: An Overview (2008) pp. 244, 467. According to this hypothesis, by being enmeshed in parental needs, trapped in a discrepant role function,Virginia Satir, Peoplemaking (1983) p. 167 a child may lose their capacity for self-direction;R. C. Schwartz, Internal Family Systems Therapy (1997) p. 162 their own distinctiveness, under the weight of "psychic incest";Robert Bly, Iron John (1991) pp. 170, 185–7. and, if family pressures increase, may end up becoming the identified patient or family scapegoat.Goldenberg, p. 239
Enmeshment was also used by John Bradshaw to describe a state of cross-generational bonding within a family, whereby a child (normally of the opposite sex) becomes a surrogate spouse for their mother or father.John Bradshaw, Reclaiming Virtue (2009) p. 390
The term is sometimes applied to engulfing codependent relationships,Bradshaw, p. 272 where an unhealthy symbiosis is in existence.R. Abell, Own Your Own Life (1977) pp. 119–22
Others suggest that for the toxically enmeshed child, the adult's carried feelings may be the only ones they know, outweighing and eclipsing their own.Terence Real, I Don't Want to Talk About It (1997) pp. 206, 360.
Critiques
There are important cultural differences in how "enmeshment" would be experienced or conceptualized, however. One study found that "enmeshed" adults in the United Kingdom experienced more depression than those in Italy, because of cultural expectations in more individualistic versus more collectivist cultures.Manzi C, Vignoles VL, Regalia C, Scabini E. Cohesion and enmeshment revisited: differentiation, identity, and well-being in two european cultures. J Marriage and Family. 2006;68(3):673–689. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00282.x
Further, feminist family therapy critics have arguedAllen, S. F., & Stoltenberg, C. D. (1995). Psychological separation of older adolescents and young adults from their parents: An investigation of gender differences. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 542–546.Boss, P., & Thorne, B. (1989). Family sociology and family therapy: A feminist linkage. In M. McGoldrick & C. M. Anderson (Eds.), Women in families: A framework for family therapy (pp. 78–96). New York:
Norton. that the very concept of enmeshment may "reflect prototypically male standards of self and relationships, which contribute to the common practice of labeling women's preferred interactional styles as pathological or dysfunctional".Bograd M. Enmeshment, fusion or relatedness?: a conceptual analysis. Journal of Psychotherapy & The Family. 1988;3(4):65–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000118 Empirical research in this critical feminist tradition has found that young women with the strongest sense of family cohesion have the highest social self-esteem, despite exhibiting what could be pathologized as "enmeshment".Gorbett, K., & Kruczek, T. (2008). Family factors predicting social self-esteem in young adults. The Family Journal, 16(1), 58–65
See also
References
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Further reading
- Robin Skynner, One Flesh, Separate Persons (London 1976)
External links
- [http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enmeshment-symptoms-and-causes-125738708.html Enmeshment: Symptoms and Causes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626002926/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enmeshment-symptoms-and-causes-125738708.html |date=26 June 2012 }}
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