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Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy pp 1–4Cite as

Family of Origin

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Name of Concept

Family of Origin

Introduction

The term “Family of Origin” describes the family in which a person was raised. An individual’s family of origin is composed of the members, consanguine or not, who played a significant role in the early development (infancy and childhood) of the individual.

Theoretical Context for Concept

The idea of the family of origin is an ever-present concept in the clinical work of marriage and family therapists because the field rests upon a family systems perspective. A seminal idea of systems theory is that every individual is embedded in a multi-level system: The biological processes within the individual are nested within the nuclear family and extended family structures, which are, in turn, nested within a community and social context (Breunlin et al. 2001). Aristotle’s maxim that “the whole is larger than the sum of its parts” is often borrowed to explain the approach marriage and family therapists take to assess individual problems. “Where...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anne K. DeCore & Karen Focht

Authors
  1. Anne K. DeCore
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  2. Karen Focht
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anne K. DeCore .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Alliant International University, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Molly F. Gasbarrini

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DeCore, A.K., Focht, K. (2018). Family of Origin. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_349-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_349-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

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