I was looking for some of the specific roles in dysfunctional families in a search engine and came across this article with all of them, or what is supposed to be all of them. Enabler - usually a parent Children's roles: Hero Scapegoat Lost Child Mascot I don't know anything about this institute so I don't have an opinion of it one way or the other: dysfunctional families As for the children, they can assume multiple roles. It's mix and match. If you reflect about these situations they describe, as I did, this can make for a tough read. Any thoughts?
I think this is very accurate information. You're right, that some of it was tough to read. I guess I can't say anything too deeply, because to be honest, as anonymous as this account is, there are some things I would never say online because of how loyal I tend to be when it comes to keeping something confidential. What I will say is that I'm a part of a family that has a terrible track record of communicating, and does tend to throw a lot of nasty passive shit around. I never thought too hard about whether we qualified as truly dysfunctional. After reading this page, I think I understand a little better now. We have had some problems and recently I've done what I've can to ease relationships between family members. I don't know how effective I've been, honestly. There are times when I wonder what an "ideal family" is supposed to be like, and if that's something that even exists. Regardless, I wouldn't trade my parents for anyone. For anything they've done wrong, at the very least they've been supportive and when push really came to shove they were willing to talk and even look at themselves honestly. These days, they're looking more into self help, which I think is good. I believe that if people are willing to look at their mistakes, a so-called dysfunctional family can heal itself. It's just a matter of swallowing your pride and dealing with some tough truths, and I think this page serves as a good how-to guide.
I'm wondering what percentage of families is dysfunctional enough to require therapeutic intervention. Sadly, a lot of dysfunctional families don't heal or they don't change enough. It was interesting they said that certain children can occupy multiple roles. Since we didn't have enough kids in our family to spread these 4 roles across, there was some overlap. Yes there was.
