Dr. Murray Bowen was born in Tennessee and his family had been living there since the Revolution (Kerr, 2000). He was the oldest of five children born to Jess and Maggie Bowen (Kerr, 2000). He earned a bachelor’s degree and a Medical Degree from the University of Tennessee (Kerr, 2000). Later, he interned at Bellevue Hospital and Grasslands Hospital in New York for two years (Kerr, 2000). After medical school and his training, he went into the military (Kerr, 2000).
Dr. Bowen is the psychiatrist and researcher that developed the Bowen Family Systems Theory. Dr. Bowen was a United States Army physician during World War II and became fascinated with psychiatry after noticing the effects trauma had on soldiers (The Family Systems Institute, 2018). He originally studied Freud’s psychoanalysis, but he later left that theory as felt there was more to a human’s difficulties than their psyche (The Family Systems Institute, 2018). He determined that their family relationships/ systems were a huge part of who they were and the problem they may have (The Family Systems Institute, 2018). He began to research families at the US National Institute of Mental Health in late 1950’s (The Family Systems Institute, 2018).
Bowen Family Systems Theory 