The Epigenesis Of Relational Systems: A Model For Understanding Family Development

In the “epigenesis” of enduring relational systems, a sequence of four major processes or patterns can be identified: attachment/caregiving, communicating, joint problem‐solving, and mutuality. Although these processes overlap, they optimally follow one another in becoming focally significant and ascendant. In this schema, intimacy makes a complex, deeply valued, but inconstant contribution. The development of family relatedness can be regarded as the prototype for epigenesis of relatively enduring relational systems. In family assessment, the hypothesized sequence qualitatively differs from, yet complements, traditional descriptions of structural transitions in family composition over the family life cycle. Such structural changes occur more or less inexorably whether or not the quality of family relating has progressed. Attempts to bypass stages in the development of salient relational processes are apt to generate impasses and dysfunctions or constrict subsequent growth. This developmental framework may be useful in relational “diagnosis” and in selecting those issues that deserve priority in therapy and research.