2006-2007 Calendar
Thursday Professional Lectures

Scheduled to precede the Clinical Conference Series, the Thursday Professional Lectures are held at the Georgetown Family Center at 7:30 pm. The lectures are free and open to the public. On-street parking is available.

September 14, 2006
Letters between U.S. Presidents
and Their Wives and Daughters
Gerard W. Gawalt, PhD, Historian,
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Passion and intensity are the keys to understanding the relations of presidents and their families. Most of the letters to be discussed were private and reveal themes of romance, ambition, triumph, loss, and the daily problems of any family. This commonality with the everyday family gives added appeal to the celebrity nature of these letters.

October 5, 2006
Immigration as a Natural Process
Louise Rauseo, RN, MS, The Bowen Center Faculty
This presentation offers an opportunity to think about immigration as a natural process, influenced by the same factors of resource depletion, population density, environmental changes, and emotional process that influence migration in other species. Mrs. Rauseo draws on Bowen theory and her study of families in the midst of migration at the U.S./Mexico border to address the influence of family emotional process on migration.

November 30, 2006
Families with Addiction
Anne McKnight, LCSW, EdD, The Bowen Center Faculty
Addiction has been characterized as a genetic, social, psychological, and spiritual disorder. Dr. McKnight will discuss the addiction of a family member as an aspect of a multigenerational emotional process. She will also address the function of addiction in a family as a regulator of distance/closeness, overfunctioning, and projection.  Changes in the person who is addicted can affect the interactions in the family, often throwing the family off balance.

January 19, 2007
Some Serendipitous Thoughts on Cetacean Evolution
James Mead, PhD, Zoologist and Curator,
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
Cetaceans (whales, porpoises, and dolphins) first came on the scene in the Eocene Period, about 55 million years ago. Early cetaceans were known as archaeocetes (ancient whales) and differed considerably from today’s whales. They reached their maximum diversity about 20 million years ago, and the number of forms has been decreasing ever since. Dr. Mead will discuss the tremendous range of whales that are now extinct, what we know and don’t know about whales, and the types of living whales that are yet to be discovered.

February 15, 2007
Using Bowen Theory for Change
Joan Jurkowski, MS, LCPC, Clinician
After learning about Bowen Theory, Ms. Jurkowski began to maintain records on her family contacts and associated symptoms, eventually adding a daily journal to note her functioning. Based on a review of her records spanning twenty-five years, Ms. Jurkowski describes her efforts to decrease emotional cutoff and improve her functioning. She evaluates how her observations validate Bowen theory as a way of understanding behavior and working toward change.

March 15, 2007
The Nature of Things: Art and Science in the Renaissance
David Gariff, PhD, Art Historian, National Gallery
The interplay between art and science during the Renaissance is a fascinating episode in Western history. In this illustrated lecture, Dr. Gariff explores some of the major artists’ work, themes, and ideas that helped to shape this important dialogue. The innovations and experiments of Filippo Brunelleschi, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Andreas Vesalius, and Galileo, among others, contributed to a new definition of artistic discovery and scientific inquiry that remains at the heart of modern art and science today.

April 19, 2007
How to “Hear” and “See” Anxiety from the
Perspective of Interactional Therapy
Wendel A. Ray, PhD, Professor of Family Therapy,
University of Louisiana at Monroe
Understanding Don Jackson’s communication theory involves appreciating his thorough understanding of the interpersonal theory of anxiety of his mentor, Harry Stack Sullivan. Jackson’s interactional orientation allowed him to “hear” and “see” anxiety as a dyadic and triadic process of interaction in the present moment of the interview.  Jackson’s method for tracking triadic interactional process is the cornerstone of family theory focusing on communication. This presentation uses recordings of Jackson working with families.

May 10, 2007
Toward A Natural Systems View of Slavery
Mercy Hyde, MSW, Vermont Center for Family Studies
Ants and humans have evolved to dominate the planet and their phylogenetic lines. They are also the only slave makers. Field and genetic research on slave-making ants has ballooned in the past decade. The incidence of slave-making in humans is evolving and has kept pace with population increase. This presentation will review research on slave-making in ants with a consideration of its relevance to human slave-making.

June 14, 2007
Written in Bone: Stories of Life and Death in the Colonial Chesapeake 
Douglas Owsley, PhD, Forensic Anthropologist, National Museum of Natural History
Dr. Owsley is part of a multidisciplinary project studying human skull remains of early American settlers. A merger of history, archeology, and modern forensic science, the project seeks to recreate the lives of these people, including their activities and diet, and their effects on growth, health, and causes of death. In this project the bones are put in the context of the whole system.

July 12, 2007
Emotional Regression from Cells to Societies
Michael E. Kerr, MD, Director, The Bowen Center
Emotional regression describes an anxiety-driven reversion to an earlier or less advanced state of emotional functioning.  This can occur in individuals, families, organizations, and societies. Regressions can also occur in non human social systems ranging from ants to mammals. Recent research suggests that cancers reflect regression in the functioning of cellular systems. This presentation will describe some common denominators of emotional regression at levels ranging from cells to societies.