How to Resist Group Anxiety and Become a Differentiated Self

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 July 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

When we think about anxiety, we typically think of something that is generated and felt within an individual. But Murray Bowen, a psychiatrist of the mid-20th century, argued that anxiety was also created by the interactions between individuals and could spread like a contagion in a group, an idea known as "Family Systems Theory." Here to offer an introduction to Family Systems Theory and how its implications extend far beyond the family is Steve Cuss, who is a former hospital chaplain, a pastor, the founder of Capable Life, which offers coaching and consultation, and the author of Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs. Today on the show, Steve and I discuss how individuals in both families and organizations can "infect a situation with [their] own assumptions and expectations" and create a sense of anxiety that permeates a group. Steve unpacks the false needs that create chronic anxiety in an individual, how this anxiety spreads to others, and the unhealthy ways people deal with this tension, including becoming fused together. And we talk about how to put this anxiety back where it belongs, and how a single person can change a group dynamic by differentiating from it and becoming a rooted self.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:11.0	When we think about anxiety, we typically think of something that is generated and felt within an individual.
0:16.0	But Murray Bowen, the psychiatrist in the mid-20th century, argue that anxiety was also created by the interactions between individuals.
0:23.7	It could spread like a contagion in a group, an idea known as family systems theory.
0:28.3	Here to offer an introduction to family systems theory and how its implications extend far
0:32.2	beyond the family is Steve Kuss, who's a former
0:34.8	hospital chaplain, a pastor, the founder of Capable Life, which offers coaching and consultation,
0:39.9	and the author of Managing Leadership Anxiety, Yours and Theirs.
0:44.0	Today on the show, Steve and I discuss how individuals in both families and
0:47.0	organizations can infect a situation with their own assumptions and expectations,
0:51.0	and create a sense of anxiety that permeates a group.
0:53.0	Steve unpacks the false needs that create chronic anxiety in an individual,
0:57.0	how this anxiety spreads to others,
0:59.0	and the unhealthy ways people deal with this tension,
1:01.0	including becoming fused together.
1:03.7	And we talk about how it put this anxiety back where it belongs, and how a single person could change
1:07.6	a group dynamic by differentiating from it and becoming a rooted self.
1:12.0	After the shows over, check at our shownuts at AIM.
1:14.0	I.S. slash family systems. All right, Steve Kuss, welcome to the show.
1:27.6	All right, Steve Kuss, welcome to the show.
1:29.8	Brett, thanks for having me on.
1:31.0	I've been, too. I've really enjoyed your work, the books you've done,
	...

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