A genogram, also known as a family diagram, is a pictorial display of a person's position in their family's hereditary and ongoing relationships. It goes beyond a traditional family tree by allowing the user to visualize social patterns and psychological factors that punctuate relationships, especially patterns that repeat over the generations.

History

Therapist Murray Bowen of the Georgetown Family Center developed the concept of the genogram, which he preferred to call a "family diagram" as part of his family systems model in the 1970s. He claimed not to know where the concept of a genogram came from, but avowed that he did not invent it. In their 1980 book, The Family Life Cycle, Carter and McGoldrick included a genogram on the cover and a page on the genogram format, copyrighted to Dr. Murray Bowen, who had been promoting the value of genograms family systems work. The same year Jack Bradt, who had been a student of Bowen, published a pamphlet through the Groome Center where he worked, which displayed the basic symbols used for family diagrams or genograms. Genograms were later developed and popularized by Monica McGoldrick and Randy Gerson through their book Genograms in Family Assessment (first published in 1985), 4th edition, Genograms: Assessment and Treatment, 2020, with McGoldrick, Petry and Gerson as authors. Genograms are now used by various groups of people in a variety of fields. Many practitioners in health care and mental health have over the past 50 years come to use genograms, especially in services that are interested in understanding human behavior patterns in a contextual manner.

Symbols

A genogram is created with simple symbols representing the gender, with various lines to illustrate family relationships. Genogram symbols typically include date of birth and date of death over three or more generations and the name of the individual underneath. People's current age or age at death is indicated within the symbol for each person, and computer programs have the advantage of being able to update age as time goes along. Various individuals and groups in different fields have worked together to develop a standardized genogram: Psychiatry: Murray Bowen, Philip Guerin, Jack Bradt, Brian Stagoll, Karl Tomm Psychology: Randy Gerson, Michael Rohrbaugh, Sueli Petry, Eliana Gil Social work: Betty Carter, Ann Hartman, Elaine Pinderhughes, Monica McGoldrick Family medicine: Jack Medalie, Jack Froom, John Rodgers, Michael Crouch

Patterns tracked

A genogram can contain a wealth of information on the families represented. It will not only show the names of people who belong to a family lineage, but how these relatives relate to each other. For example, a genogram will not only show that a person called Paul and his wife Lily have three children, but that their eldest child was sent to boarding school; that their middle child is always in conflict with her mother; that their youngest has juvenile diabetes; that Paul suffered from depression, was an alcoholic, and a philosopher; and that Lily has not spoken to her brother for years, has breast cancer, and has a history of quitting her jobs.