Family Systems Theory and Those Labeled Mentally Ill By Anthony Faber, Phd. Perpetual (C)Copyright (2012 C.E.

) By Anthony J. Fejfar and Neothomism, P.C. (PA) Family Systems Theory (FST) states that families have certain relationships and ways of relating that are often dysfunctional. For example, certain family members who have political power in the family, yet who are not very functional in terms of life skills and work skills, rely on one or more other family members to rescue them from financial or other harm. Often, the The

middle child, in terms of birth order, is the rescuer, or helper, or mediator, or hero.

family, whether reasonable or not, expects this child to be the savior of the family, without being compensated or paid. If the hero or savior child stops being the upaid helper, then the family blackballs or scapegoats that child. Although the family may try to actually physically harm

that child, more often the family will do everything it can to destroy the career of the hero child and have that child labeled mentally ill, and put on a psychiatry ward and into psychiatric treatment. The helper or hero child is often in formal operations, cognitively, (see Piaget and Kohlberg), and thus is able to tell the family, and its members, how they are dysfunctional in areas such as: drug addiction, alcoholism, financial dysfunction, personal lifestyle dysfunction, etc. The dysfunctional family members project their own inadequacies onto the more functional

hero or helper and label that person mentally ill and extremely dysfunctional. Thus, the result is that the more functional person is then labeled as the dysfunctional person, and thus scapegoated. And, it may be that the dysfunctional family will include the extended family of cousins and aunts and uncles, and even form a group called a scapegoat committee or satanic cult or witches coven, in order to more effectively scapegoat the hero or helper, trying to force that hero or

helper to commit suicide.

The crisis in the family often occurs when the family system has

changed with the more dysfunctional siblings getting married and having an equally dysfunctional spouse and children. Now the hero is expected not only to rescue the family of origin, but also the spouses and children of the siblings, which of course is typically an impossible task. Moreover, if the hero or helper, him or herself gets married and has children, the hero or helper is also often expected to rescue the dysfunctional family members on his or her spouses side of the family as well, which is also virtually impossible. Thus, the dysfunctional

locacl family and extended family, on both sides of the family ends up scape goating the hero or helper, when the hero or helper is incapable of rescuing this family, but also when the hero or helper starts to critique the family and family members for being dysfunctional and demands that they change. Thus, the dysfunctional family does all it can to ensure that the helper or hero

becomes or is labeled mentally ill, in order to repress the idea that the dysfunctional family members are really the ones who are mentally ill, not the hero or helper child. The problem is compounded by the fact that many psychiatrists and psychologist rely on anecdotal reports by the family as to the alleged activities and mental state of the hero patient, without any verification of that information at all. Additionally, the dysfunctional family members might even engage in highly illegal activity to have the hero or helper labeled mentally ill, by subtly drugging the hero with illegal drugs such as LSD, PCP, qualudes, designer uppers and designer downers. The unsophisticated psychiatrist is often an enabler of this dysfunctional family and its activity, either consciously or unconsciously. Thus, both for the individual hero or helper, and for society as a

whole, a huge cost is incurred by the situation where the person who is most functional is forced into a dysfunctional situation by being forced into psychiatric treatment by those who are the really dysfunctional, mentally ill, persons.