The Long Road Home Analysis

The Long Road Home Danielle Steel’s fictional book, The Long Road Home, is about the Harrison family, which consists of Thomas, the father, Eloise, the mother and Gabrielle, their seven-year old daughter. From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, Gabriella Harrison looks at the guests and imagines being in their mansion like palaces in Manhattan. At the age of seven, she knows she is intruding on her parents’ party, and on her parents' life, but she cannot resist the magical attraction. Later she awaits the click, click, click of the high heels of her mother, and the angry words and the pain that will follow. Gabriella knows that she will be struck by her mother's fury and her father will be unable to protect her. Her world is a confused mix of terror, betrayal and pain. The aristocratic world of her parents is not a guarantee against abuse. This abuse does not know borders and it respects nobody nor are there any economic demarcations. Gabriella knows no matter how hard she looks, there is no safe place for her to hide. Bowen Family Systems Therapy From the Bowen systemic perspective, the human relationships are boosted by counterweight of the life forces, which are the individuality and the togetherness formed by established patterns which go through different generations of the family. The long-term family relationship patterns should contribute to different problems when the family cannot find a balance between three important forces: Differentiation of self, Emotional triangulation and Multigenerational emotional processes (Bowen, as cited in Haefner, 2014) Differentiation of self: Bowenian therapy emphasized the importance of the emotional anxiety inside the family as the one which conducts fusion between the family members. This fusion or lack of self-differentiation, is understood as one member being connected in an exaggerated and negative manner with the others. This is evident in the fusion of the Harrison family which is shown as the relationship between Gabrielle and Thomas (Bowen, as cited in Haefner, 2014). The interaction between Gabrielle and Thomas could be viewed as simple as Thomas’s passivity and Gabrielle’s irritant behavior. However; from the Bowenian perspective, the understanding of fusion, is manifested when the family members try to dominate or control the other members and are unsuccessful in achieving that goal or give up their own autonomy because they feel fear that they might lose the love of the other family members (Bowen, as cited in Jankowski & Hooper, 2012). In the concept of the book, Thomas tries to create certain kind of differentiation when he comes back from work and sees the bruises on Gabrielle’s arm and he confronts Eloise about her behavior being negligent towards Gabrielle. Thomas is showing the same pattern of behavior throughout the book, probably as a manifestation of his own anxiety about the family’s actual situation. For Thomas, to be with the point of view of Eloise, is helping to relieve some of his own anxiety, but sacrificing his own autonomy, opinions and decisions. From a Bowenian perspective, one can notice Thomas looking into Eloise’s thoughts related to a particular topic before he offers his opinion and one can also notice Eloise’s tendency to answer questions on …show more content…
Looking at those interactions should be a useful starting point for the therapy, showing a lack of differentiation and establishing a point to work through the sessions (Jankowski & Hooper, 2012). The lack of differentiation between Eloise and Thomas could be a point to work through the therapy using process questions pointed to reduce patterned and anxious responses, which help to increase the couple objectivity. The exploration of Eloise and Thomas’ behavior should offer clarity related to reasons that drive their individual anxiety, and could be a way to create positive changes in their relationship (Bowen, as cited in Jankowski & Hooper, 2012).
Emotional triangulation: As in the case of differentiation of self within relationships, which is frequently the result of anxiety, the same is true of Emotional triangulation. When anxiety increases, the people experience a high need for emotional closeness as a way to avoid pressure. A dyad is an example of how to direct the attention to a third person uninvolved in a conflict as a way to draw attention away from oneself. It helps the individuals to relieve their emotional discomfort (Bowen, as cited in Haefner,