Behavioral Family History: An Introduction

• Here Comes Granddad Again: Part 2 by James Brody, 3/12/97
  
  

Even a cursory, sympathetic interview can elicit information consistent with the model that each of us is, at least partially, a mosaic of physical and behavioral characteristics seen in our parents and grandparents. (1) A more detailed interview of families, not only for kidney disease or diabetes, but also for assorted behavioral traits may offer treatment choices not seen in the more standard techniques that focus on the patient/client to the exclusion of other people. A detailed inventory of family behavioral traits could eventually be a powerful diagnostic and planning tool once we gain experience with the model, its strengths and limits.

a) A behavioral family history allows less blaming, more acceptance, and less anger about behavior antecedents. It also avoids certain errors in present psychological theories but incurs the risks of others. There is often an assumption that the client would have been perfectly normal except a parent or guardian failed to emit normal rearing behaviors. The result is a disproportionate focus on a critical events of a few early years rather than seeking lifetime patterns that perhaps characterize several people and several generations in the family. There are many hints in current research that some children are born disruptive, avoidant, or anxious and are perhaps more likely born to adults with similar features. Given the tendencies for similar adults to choose each other for marriage, the appearance of certain behavioral problems to appear in the children may be even greater. Thus, the behavioral history should look past the presumed critical events and assess behavior traits in relatives similar to those about which the client complains.

b) In contrast, erroneous assumptions of another, possibly destructive type, can appear. The behavioral history may engender an automatic, superficial, defense for aggressive, abusive, or assaultive conduct. "My father did it, his father did it, so I can't help doing it."(2) The opposite is actually true. Given foreknowledge of familial action patterns, we incur greater, not less, responsibility to manage them effectively. It is as if we can be "second time offenders" when our parents and grandparents had similar difficulties. Appropriate information in combination with less, rather than more, social forgiveness might be more effective than our current system of minimalist interventions when problems first appear.

Treatment Considerations:

a) Behavior sequences are products not only of possible genetic programming but also of imitation, consequences, exteroceptive stimuli, and more private, cognitive ones. Change any one of these factors and we change the causative matrix for a problematic response.

b) It also appears generally true that we have the greatest latitude to plan more adaptive thoughts and behaviors when relatively distant from a troublesome situation. Make consequences more dramatic, more obvious, and earlier for either disruptive behaviors or desirable alternatives. Change environments sooner to preclude the sequence entirely.

c) Goodwin (1995) commented that evolution consists of finding an environment wherein we can be ourselves. This adage also works for mental health. Use the family history to discover unexpected areas of client talents even if the modern application may vary. Likewise, for disruptive behavior sequences. If there are strong behavioral similarities to an older family member, then you have information about conditions associated with failure and with success. Duplication of conditions that were present for a relative's success could generate comparable success for the client.

d) There is a preexisting support group within most families consisting of people with similar talents and weaknesses. Along with this support group should come a sense of continuity, belonging, contentment, and pride.(3) It is likely that our hypothecated, evolved mechanisms for kin recognition will process not only physical traits but behavioral mannerisms as well.

e) There is less expectation that lectures or various "practice" strategies will provide a satisfactory outcome for all kinds of problems. More rational tactics for being in the right environments should emerge once the successes and failures of other family members are known. (I'm encouraged by one aggressive teen who has discovered that he nearly always fights in noisy or crowded settings. His older brother, with similar problems, is considering the same boundaries for himself.)

f) Customary "talk" treatment has a different role than in the past. Talk can provide information but information does not carry the burden of providing an automatic cure. Information helps with acceptance, planning, and making environmental changes. Information may also help you choose between competing educational or career paths. There is less pointless "dumping" of feelings that can be repeated in therapy until the client is either too bored or too poor to continue.

g) Treatment of depressed or impulsive behavior may be powerfully helped by environmental manipulations. Knowing the incentives and punishments that worked for other family members should more quickly lead to finding effective motivators for the client.

h) Grieving becomes a different matter. While the client will miss the particular combination of traits carried by a deceased relative, he can also enjoy the similarities that are shared and look for them again in the children.

Many will find negative implications in this model, especially for our cherished notions of "Free Will" Some may unfortunately think of Free Will in its oppositional form, the one synonymous with American tradition, the one that says, "Don't tell me what to do." I prefer one outlined by Barkley (1996) wherein Free Will involves anticipating future situations, comparing them to past situations, checking for rules, choosing between behavior options, and then implementing that choice at a future time. The more information about familial patterns that we have, the greater our effective use of Free Will is apt to be.

NOTES:

1. I can reproduce the mosaic phenomenon of family action patterns in every client I interview. Numerous others have also noted these phenomena. Eiseley (1975) remarked about seeing his father's hand coming from his own sleeve. I've attempted to locate the group that sang "Things Handed Down," a song played on WIOQ, Philadelphia, Mothers' Day, 1996. There are other popular songs that refer to family traits, especially in country and western titles. See the essay, "Adaptive Systems: A Foundation for 'Here Comes Grand Dad Again'?" for some possible explanations and links with hypothesized evolved psychological adaptations (Barkun et al. 1992).

2. Stereotyping is another risk. Differences clearly exist between people but fitness is a second, complex issue and without resolution. Fitness is always in relation to a setting and at a particular time. The interactions of culture, physical resources, and endlessly varied mosaics of traits means that there is often no obvious or predictable selective advantage to any particular trait.

3. There is some recent work that the presence of a "therapeutic alliance" is a strong predictor of treatment outcome and that the alliance is more closely related to client and less to therapist traits.

REFERENCES: Barkley, R. (1995) Taking Charge of ADHD. NY: Guilford. Barkun, J., Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1992), (Eds.) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. NY: Oxford. Brody, J. (1997) Look for other postings under "Here Comes Granddad Again." Eiseley, L. (1995) All the Strange Hours: Excavations of a Life. New York: Scribners. Goodwin, Brian. (1995) Biology Is Just a Dance. In J. Brockman (Ed.) The Third Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster, p.103.

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