Interactional View

Family life is an interesting concept. We do not choose the family to which we belong. There is no survey or questionnaire we get to fill out before exiting the womb as to what type of family we would like. For the most part, what we get is what we get. The only choice we have is how we choose to interact with the family we have been born into. Whether a family is well functioning or dysfunctional, all families have individual members who each have individual roles that they play in the drama of their life. One way of looking at these roles are through the lens of Dr. Paul Watzlawick's Interactional View.

The interactional view is rather in- depth, but it essentially focuses on the different roles and how they are played out on a day to day basis. A good example of how families have and live out their roles can be seen in the movie What's Eating Gilbert Grape. In this movie the viewer can easily see the organizational structure of the family. Gilbert's role is taking care of his mentally handicapped brother Arne. Amy the oldest of the two daughters in the family, is in charge of taking care of their overweight (and basically immobile) mother. The younger sister Ellen is the protagonist in the family. Despite their different roles, there is one main rule in the family and that is to keep mama happy. The concept Watzlawick uses to describe these types of roles and rules is the "Family System." The family system is a "self-regulating interdependent network of feedback loops guided by members' rules; the behavior of each person affects and is affected by the behavior of another" (Watzlawick). This idea is played out in the movie in several ways. The strongest example for me was the role of Gilbert as Arne's caretaker. Whenever Arne neglected his duties of looking after Arne (whether it was out of frustration or desire to seek his own interests) things would go wrong. At one point in the movie, while the family is eating dinner, Arne begins to joke about the death of their father and Gilbert is unable to calm him down. This causes frustration among the dinner table and causes mama to loose her cool. This scene shows how things can easily go wrong when family roles and rules are out of order. Gilbert was not able to perform his role and therefore Arne was not under control and his joking unintentionally broke the family rule of always keeping mama happy.

This movie is filled with many more scenes that give insight into the interactional view. It helped me to understand the concept better and it helped in trying to label the roles in my own family. I found it much more difficult to see the roles in my own life as clearly as I was able to see them in the lives of the Grape family. I think that one reason for this is that I am much closer to the "action." Perhaps if I could experience my life as an outsider I would be able to better see the roles being played out in my own life.