Understanding cultural family dynamics from a psychotherapeutic view

Family dynamics can be best interpreted in the context of their societal and cultural background. Culture has been shown to determine the family structure that shapes the family type or even size of the family. This is further ascertained by boundaries, rules for interaction, communication patterns, acceptable practices, discipline and hierarchy within the family structure. The roles of family members are determined largely by cultural factors (as well as stages of the family life cycle) and the culture itself explains families’ ways of ‘being’ even to the point of defining problems and how to solve them.

It is important to recognise that culture is not an external passive influence on families rather families themselves serve as the primary agent for transferring these cultural values to their members. Parents, caregivers raise children albeit subconsciously with conditioning to learn and develop understanding of culture and the society in which they are born.

This can be typical of Indian families, Arabian families, Asian families from eastern cultural backgrounds.

Family members modify actions and behaviours in children, adult children and even themselves by principles of social learning. In this process, the general norms and beliefs may be modified to suit the needs of the family creating a set of “family values”. In other words a subset of societal and cultural norms applied to the family.

In counselling it is imperative to understand the impact of culture on family functioning as well as in conflict resolution and problem-solving skills of the family members. One such important dimension of counselling a member from eastern cultural background is that of the effects of family functioning is a collectivism. “Collectivism” refers to the philosophic, social outlook that emphasizes interdependence amongst members of the family, sidelining ‘independence’. It is the basic cultural element for cohesion within family dynamics from eastern cultures which stresses on the priority of the group as opposed to the individual.

Lets take a look at different types of these themes:

·       ‘’Individualism” emphasizes on what makes the individual independent, their own person

·       ‘’Horizontal groups” means system of collective decision-making by relatively equal individuals, this could be an intra-generational family member

·       “Vertical groups” is hierarchical structures in group family dynamics, such as inter-generational relations in a three generation family

Cultural differences in family dynamics when mean that people in different cultures have fundamentally different constructs of the self and of others. For more collectivistic societies, ‘group’ families such as from eastern cultures like’ the self’ is defined relative to others. In other words belongingness, dependency, empathy, and reciprocity, is selective in ‘group’, ‘collectivism’ dynamic families whereas ‘individualism’ is not particularly encouraged or expected. Relationships and interconnectedness in these cultural family backgrounds with others are emphasized, whereas personal autonomy, space or privacy are considered secondary.

Therefore, it is imperative in the application of western counselling psychotherapy, primarily focused on dynamic models, ego structure and individuals, to be mindful when working family systems that are of eastern backgrounds because it becomes quite challenging to apply in the eastern collectivistic context.

This is why working with a culturally informed counsellor is beneficial in that their understanding of eastern complex groups setting family dynamics is understood if not rooted in their own essence and experiences.