Ecopsychology is a system of DEEP ECOLOGY. The deep ecology I am talking about refers to human psyche — so this is a therapeutic way of looking into WORLD SOUL from a Depth Psychology perspective.
The genogram is like a map. A genogram allows us to see, as therapists into what we call a “system” — only, the HUMAN SYSTEM is what we are looking at in terms of SYSTEMS THEORY.
So, what we can do is figure out how we have all arrived.
I’ll show you how to do this, using myself as a model in terms of dates — and what to do with this information in your own genogram.
So we had made a genogram like this:
1910—————————————1950—————————————-2010.
I am going to add my grandparents, parents and myself to this now — as marks along the line.
You do this too, for your family system.
1900 and 1903 are the dates of my grandparent’s births in Illinois.
1927 is my mother’s birthdate, same place.
1957 is my birthdate, San Francisco.
In order to explore what happens in your genogram we want to look at values, attitudes and cultural surround. No human being on earth will have the same exact genogram in this three generation model — because we are all different.
A person from France my age is going to have gone through WWII in a different way. Even if their dates are the same as mine. So, begin to think like that, okay? Globally.
We can use the Wikipedia to learn history and fill in the facts.
So here we go…
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
Here is how a genogram can look different?
1910———————————————1950——————————————–1980———-2010
Okay so, let me insert war into my genogram?
1910 — WWI—————————WWII———–Vietnam War———————————-2001——.
WWI and WWII are “history” for my generation. The Vietnam War was the biggest shaping force of my generation who were for “peace.” The next big “war” is post-911, for my generation.
In looking at the genogram of someone born in 1980 who was 21 during 9/11? Their experience of “history” will be different from mine. Even the “history” they learned in school will be different from mine.
War is only one form of cultural surround we can use to do mapping like this.
We can also look at cultural values through a different lens.
Let me show you?
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
We can use location geographically starting with our own country. What does California look like in 1957 compared to a state like one in the deep south or far north? How are they the same or different?
You can also do this city by city using your birth date?
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
What does this genogram look like in Europe or Asia, or Africa etc. during same time period?
Here is WWI from the Wikipedia.
Here is WWII from the Wikipedia.
Imagine as you begin to think of your own family system — think about The Family of Man — because I want to talk about that rage.
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
The reason that my generation is not enraged at WWII is because Americans feel they “stopped” something.
My generation holds this as a “positive” belief.
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
Now let’s think about Europe post WWII. My birthplace and life post-1957 look very different than someone born in Europe at the same time, perhaps? Depending on the region.
What sort of rage do you think is held by a generation whose parents or grandparents went through a genocide?
This is what we need to look at all over the world.
The rage will be held in the next generation as a mythos of the culture itself. Some cultures will view their mythos through a lens we cannot comprehend? Because we are not them. Just as a culture can hold rage, they can also hold shame? Along generational lines.
Since the Vietnam War was the biggest shaping factor for my generation in terms of thinking about war here is the wiki on that:
Let’s look at the second genogram to see how an event might have impacted them?
1910———————————————1950——————————————–1980———-2010
The Rwanda War and events of 1994.
1910———————————————1950——————————————–1980–1994–2010
You can see how this is very “present” history for that generation. The Vietnam War would be like WWII was for my generation? WWII for them would be ancient history in a sense. As WWI was for my generation.
Think about how these shaping events around the world cause people to hold rage because of what happened in their parent’s generation?
So, in a genogram like this one we want to put a positive event about the line?
And a negative event below the line.
Let me show you —
1910 — WWI—————————WWII———–Vietnam War———————————-2001——.
WW1 = HISTORY
WW11 = Positive
Vietnam = Negative
How would this look in a different genogram?
1910———————————————1950——————————————–1980———-2010
For the person above? Who was born in 1980?
WW1 =
WW11 =
Vietnam =
Only the person filling out their own genogram is going to know.
When I was at school, and learning how to assess, during a group process once two of my classmates held very different opinions of WWII.
My American friend had never known her father, because he was killed fighting the war in her infancy. She held rage.
My German friend had been holding shame from her grandparent’s generation and what happened during that war.
Can you see how this might look different?
If we take a look at our own country from 1950 forward:
1910—————————————————1950——————————————————2010
Our great grandparents could have been involved in this? So in our Grandparent’s generation this was the Historical War?
American Civil Rights Movement wiki
Now, the Baby Boom’s parents and the tail end baby boom children plus the boomers themselves all know this history in America.
Or do they?
How do they understand shaping forces along different genograms?
1910———————————————1950———-1957———————————————2010
1910———————————————1950——————————————–1980———–2010
This is why an analysis of these genograms by cultures all over the world are so necessary right now.
In the interest of THE FAMILY OF MAN.
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 