Differentiation and Human Functioning

– [Murray Bowen] Now, people have wondered where the term differentiation came from. I thought the concept back in the late 1940s, early 1950s. Differentiation comes from embryology, that I would consider a science that has to do with the developing embryo. And the developing embryo begins when the ovum, the cell from the ovum is fertilized by sperm. From that comes one cell. And that cell divides into two cells. And the two cells divide into four cells, each one different. So that you have one cell that becomes a heart cell, another becomes a brain cell, another a bone cell, another a muscle cell, and on and on and on, and these all go back to one cell. And that’s where differentiation came from. Now if you want to figure out how you’re brought up of a heck of a lot of different cells, and how you got that way, as far as I’m concerned the answer is life itself. I mean you’re dealing with some real critical points. In other words, how does suddenly, see each one of them, even an ovum and a sperm these are living things. These get together and create another living thing. They are divided and divided and divided, and you all came from that beginning. And you live and you die. See one of the things that went into Georgetown was extending the theory to the human phenomenon. And I agree that one of the important things that I did was to involve the human family in it. And I agree that an important part of this is to go back and study your own family. But boy it doesn’t have the answer to everything. Because then you can read stuff like comes out of the paper yesterday and today, that it is genetic if you drink. I was going to get me a big cord over here. They can’t make that little cord big enough. So where does the human being stand in terms of differentiation? Anyway you try to work it, the human is a terribly undifferentiated creature. He is absolutely dependent on the opinions around him. He is incapable of having his own. That is the main difference between people. Some people can think for themselves and go back and get their information. And others are absolutely forced to believe what others believe. Well there’s the big dividing line. Which brought us all to this. Now what you see back at the beginning I tried to put differentiation on a scale. That’s a good thing, within limits. It’s not the answer to everything. From zero to 100. And if you were to describe the scale and all that’s within, you would do about like this. We’re all down in here, pretty undifferentiated. All down here. Schizophrenia, you’ve got a whole bunch of people below that. These are people who cannot exist outside of an institution of some kind. They are sufficiently dependent on an institution. That they cannot live without it. Above that are the more severe kinds of schizophrenia. The lesser kinds of schizophrenia, the borderline, the all the bunch of things that would be called borderline. This would be pseudo-psychosis. Above that would be the more severe neuroses. This is all on a continuum. The professions like to divide everything up. And the current thing in society is we have to have a gene for each cubicle You have to have a gene for schizophrenia you gotta have a gene for everybody that drinks too much you gotta have a gene for the drug problem And this stuff absolutely does not hold together. When mankind exists, you see it in every part of society, there are people moving up the scale to higher levels of behavior. And there are people in the upper part of the scale, moving down to oblivion. If you use that way of thinking, it would say that the schizophrenic exists to absorb the immaturity in all of us, so that we might live. So people here are dependent on all those people out there in state hospitals. You wouldn’t be here, except they’re there. You report to them. You might just care a bit. You don’t have to care. That’s a feeling. Understand, please. Understand that you are a part of the human phenomenon. And you’re not different from ’em. You just have a little bit more good luck than they did. The average person who is schizophrenic doesn’t belong in a… They say, “I gave my life, so that you could have yours.” Well what in the hell is wrong with that? Are they free to make such a decision? Every person whose schizophrenic has made that. But we act as if, poor unfortunate people. We gon’ find a gene, we gon’ mix up the genes. Now maybe they’ll find one. I don’t think so. Because that’s the way the profession has gone these days. They’re going to find a gene for depression, well I’ll be damned. What is a depression? A depression is somebody who can’t live with people, and he decides people are implausible. So he goes off by himself. Whether he’s living in a home, or whether he’s not. And he gets depressed. So he’s going to swap people for depression. Well isn’t that okay? If you could say there is another way to think, you could give him a chance. All people can think for themselves if given an opportunity to. And most therapists do not permit people to think for themselves. You think you’re one of luck’s assistance and you know to play and they don’t. And that gives you a right to interfere with them making up their own minds. Do you know what it’s like that people want you to spreading the word about democracy? About Europe. And about Europe being given the right to decide for itself. And then when they give them the right to decide for themselves, not Russia moving in You’re not Russia. You don’t know what you can do with it. But if people have the right to decide for themselves, they can come up with some real good decisions, your kids can.