Family Systems Theory

I was really interested in our discussion in class today about Family Systems Theory. It states that in a family the whole is more important than the individuals. Missing or adding just one person changes the whole organization of the family. I really liked that idea. I thought about this theory in reference to my family and it helped me to realize the importance of each of my siblings and my parents. They each bring something unique that if removed would significantly change the structure of our family life.

Subsets, were also a new thing for me. There are hundreds of small groupings/relationships within the family. These are things like: marriage, parent, sibling, gender, interests, abilities, etc. My brothers are twins, so they have a subset of that. My sisters, and I all hate seafood. My siblings Andrew, Amy, Aaron, and my mom all have names that start with the letter "A". The five oldest siblings don't live at home. We used to call my four youngest brothers "the little boys"... It's all so interesting! I'm glad to have figured out that I have a special connection with each of family members. We all have our own subsets with eachother.