Insights into Family Dysfunction through Bowen’s Theory and Durang’s Satire: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Since the mid-20th century, America has witnessed a revolutionary change in its family institution. This institution epitomized the transformation of family structure, values and norms. The pace of change was breathtaking and unfortunately, families sometimes couldn’t keep pace. American playwrights have used familial relationships to trace the changes in the family institution. The purpose of this paper is to explore the dysfunction in the American family due to its deterioration and disintegration during the late 20th century through Christopher Durang’s two satirical plays within a psychological framework. Murray Bowen’s family systems theory
a psychological theory
is used for this study due to its interdisciplinary nature and its great potential in exploring and supporting literary texts through its concepts. Bowen’s family systems theory has eight basic concepts to explore the dysfunction in the family through behavioral patterns. However, due to the limited number of pages allowed, the most applicable three concepts to the texts are chosen for this study which are: ‘triangles’, ‘self-differentiation’ and ‘family projection process’. Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater (1983) and The Marriage of Bette and Boo (1985) are selected for the theory’s application because of their satirical context to help satirize the disintegration and the dysfunction in the American family. The interdisciplinary study has illustrated how Durang’s satirical plays presented a rich medium for the application of Bowen’s three concepts. It has also presented the behavioral patterns traced in dysfunctional families. For future research, the study has recommended the application of Bowen’s ‘nuclear family emotional system’ to other literary genres