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A dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior and even abuse on the part of individual members of the family occur continually, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is normal. Dysfunctional families are most often a result of the alcoholism, substance abuse, or other addictions of parents, parents' untreated mental illnesses/defects or personality disorders, or the parents emulating their own dysfunctional parents and dysfunctional family experiences. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Look up Family in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Conflict (disambiguation) In political terms, conflict refers to an ongoing state of hostility between two or more groups of people. ... Abuser redirects here. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ... Heroin bottle An addiction is a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individuals health, mental state or social life. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ... Personality disorders form a class of mental disorders that are characterized by long-lasting rigid patterns of thought and behaviour. ...

Dysfunctional family members have common symptoms and behavior patterns as a result of their common experiences within the family structure. This tends to reinforce the dysfunctional behavior, either through enabling or perpetuation. The family unit can be affected by a variety of factors.

According to Steven Farmer, the author of Adult Children of Abusive Parents, ^[1] there are several symptoms of family dysfunction:

• Denial (i.e. a refusal to acknowledge the alcoholism of a parent or child/teenager; ignoring complaints of sexual abuse)
• Inconsistency and Unpredictability
• Lack of empathy toward family members
• Lack of clear boundaries (i.e. throwing away personal possessions that belong to others, inappropriate touching, etc.)
• Role reversals ("parentifying" children)
• "Closed family system" (a socially isolated family that discourages relationships with outsiders)
• Mixed Messages
• Extremes in conflict (either too much or too little fighting between family members)

Dr. Dan Neuharth, author of If You Had Controlling Parents also expounds on dysfunctional families. (He uses the terms "controlling parents", "unhealthy control" and "over control" throughout his book.) He cites eight signs of unhealthy parenting: ^[2] Bad Touch redirects here. ... Not to be confused with Pity, Sympathy, or Compassion. ... This article is about the study of touching behaviour in humans. ... For other uses, see Conflict (disambiguation) In political terms, conflict refers to an ongoing state of hostility between two or more groups of people. ...

• Conditional love
• Disrespect
• Stifled speech (children not allowed to dissent or question authority)
• Emotional intolerance (family members not allowed to express the "wrong" emotions)
• Ridicule
• "Dogmatic or chaotic parenting" (harsh and inflexible discipline)
• "Denial of an Inner Life" (children are not allowed to develop their own value system)
• Social dysfunction or isolation

Neuharth also lists eight different parenting styles which cause family dysfunction: ^[3] For other uses, see Love (disambiguation). ... This article is about the emotion. ... This article is about authority as a concept. ... Look up Emotion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that toleration be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Discipline (disambiguation). ... A value system refers to the order and priority an individual or society grants to ethical and ideological values. ... Look up isolation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• Smothering (parents do not allow their children to maintain a separate identity)
• Using (destructively narcissistic parents)
• Abusing (parents who use physical, verbal, or sexual violence to dominate their children)
• Chaotic (unstable parents who behave in a wildly inconsistent manner with their kids)
• Perfectionist( parents who "fixate on order, prestige, power, and/or perfect appearances".)
• Cultlike (parents who feel uncertain and "raise their children according to rigid rules and roles".)
• Depriving (parents who control by withholding love, money, praise, attention, or anything else their child needs or wants.)
• Childlike (parents who "parentify" their children. They tend to be needy and incompetent. Usually allow the other parent to abuse children.)

Look up Identity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Narcissism is the pattern of traits and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with ones self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of ones gratification, dominance and ambition. ... For other uses, see Violence (disambiguation). ... Instability in systems is generally characterized by some of the outputs or internal states growing without bounds. ... Perfectionism can refer to: perfectionism (philosophy) perfectionism (psychology) perfectionist movement a utopian societal movement in the late 19th, early 20th century United States from which hails Oneida Society and which is historically related to the Modern Spiritualist movement. ... This article does not discuss cult in its original meaning. ... In religion, praise is an impassioned exaltation of God (ie. ...

Effects on children

Children growing up in a dysfunctional family have been known to adopt one or more of six basic roles:

• "The Good Child" – a child who assumes the parental role.
• "The Problem Child" – the child who is blamed for most problems in spite of being the only emotionally honest one in the family.
• "The Caretaker" – the one who takes responsibility for the emotional well-being of the family.
• "The Lost Child" – the inconspicuous, quiet one, whose needs are often ignored or hidden.
• "The Mascot" – uses comedy to divert attention away from the increasingly dysfunctional family system.
• "The Mastermind" – the opportunist who capitalizes on the other family members' faults in order to get whatever he/she wants.

They may also: A comedy is a dramatic performance of a light and amusing character, usually with a happy conclusion to its plot. ...

• think only of themselves to make up the difference of their childhoods. They're still learning the balance of self-love
• distrust others
• have difficulty expressing emotions
• have low self-esteem or have a poor self image
• have difficulty forming healthy relationships with others
• feel angry, anxious, depressed, isolated from others, or unlovable
• perpetuate dysfunctional behaviors in their other relationships (especially their children)
• lack the ability to be playful, or childlike, and may "grow up too fast"

In psychology, self-esteem or self-worth is a persons self-image at an emotional level; circumventing reason and logic. ... A persons self image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, nature of external genitalia, I.Q. score, is this person double-jointed, etc. ... Look up relationship in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the emotion. ... Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). ... In everyday language depression refers to any downturn in mood, which may be relatively transitory and perhaps due to something trivial. ...

See also

• Adult Children of Alcoholics
• Karpman Drama Triangle
• Harry Stack Sullivan
• The Simpsons

Adult Children of Alcoholics (or ACOAs) refers to individuals who have grown up in a dysfunctional household as a result of one or both of the parents alcoholism. ... The drama triangle is a psychological and social model of human interaction in transactional analysis (TA) first described by Stephen Karpman, which has become widely acknowledged in psychology and psychotherapy. ... Herbert Harry Stack Sullivan (February 21, 1892, Norwich, New York – January 14, 1949, Paris, France) was a U.S. psychiatrist whose work in psychoanalysis was based on direct and verifiable observation (versus the more abstract conceptions of the unconscious mind favored by Sigmund Freud and his disciples). ... Simpsons redirects here. ...

References