Another Look at Triangles With Dr. Laurie Lassiter

We were thrilled to have Dr. Laurie Lassiter join us as part of the March meeting of the Navigating Systems Program. Her fascinating and challenging presentation was one of the best descriptions of how social pressure, used automatically, gets people to conform.

When social threats like rejection are in the air, people are often unaware of the threat, they just conform. In understanding these pressures to conform, to fit in with a family or a group, we see how rejection and social pain cause the brain to react—as though it is a physical attack. Even slight rejection can be a wake-up call.

The Triangle demonstrates the automatic way that two can gang up on a third and create pain, often without awareness. Differentiation of self serves to reduce the ways in which we are automatically reacting. When we can see the system, it gives each of us a fair chance at improving one’s positions within a family or other social group.

Bowen theory, plus the knowledge of social pain, enables us to deal more effectively with social threats.

Laurie Lassiter Bio:

Laurie trained under Dr. Bowen in the postgraduate program and consulted with him about her own family several times before his death in 1990. Since 1991 she has frequently presented at Symposia and other conferences at the Bowen Center. She studied evolution with the biologist Lynn Margulis, who became interested in Bowen theory and before her untimely death had planned a book with Laurie to apply the theory to all forms of life.

Laurie Lassiter has a private practice in Bowen family systems therapy and writes and presents as an independent scholar.