As a mental health worker, it is essential to understand the family systems: Individuals and their roles and boundaries. This assignment will help you understand how to analyze a family system.
Cite two to four sources (in addition to the textbook) to support your answers.
After viewing the What’s Eating Gilbert Grape film and reading the “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape Case Study,” answer the following prompts:
Explain how the family of origin dynamics caused the family structure of Gilbert’s family (200-250 words).
Explain what the viewer doesn’t know about Gilbert’s family (200-250 words):
Hypothesize about what leads to the mental health/social issues in Gilbert’s family (100-150 words):
Suicide
Obesity
Poverty
Sexual promiscuity
Using Gilbert’s family system, select three of the following of Bowen’s theories and explain how they are present in the Gilbert’s family. Provide examples (75-100 words each):
Triangles
Nuclear Family Emotional Process
Family Projection Process
Multigenerational Transmission Process
Differentiation of Self
Sibling Position
Emotional Cutoff
Emotional Process in Society
Lastly, imagine Gilbert Grape approached you to assist his family as their mental health worker:
Explain your approach to providing treatment for this family. What preliminary steps would you take to begin your assessment of this family? Why? (400-500 words)
