Theory and Practice of Contemporary Psychotherapies

What is a Genogram? Video Transcript

What is a Genogram? A Genogram is a special type of family tree. A family tree will simply display ancestry information. However, a Genogram will display additional information about the relationships of the individuals.

Genograms are drawn using standardized symbols to help the viewer understand the relationships. The basic family symbols include a square for a male and a circle for a female. Genograms also include special symbols to indicate if children are twins or if a child is a biological child or adopted, in case that information is helpful. Genograms also may include information about the actual emotional relationships. There are symbols to indicate a wide range of emotions, ranging from friendship to hate. Genograms may also be used for medical and genetic analysis by simply tagging individuals with particular traits.

Let's look at an example that demonstrates this. We will use Star Wars and the Skywalker family as an example. Let's start by looking at Padme's family. Her father Ruwee, represented by a square; mother Jobal, represented by a circle. She also has an older sister named Sola. We know she's older because she's to the left. Let's get a bigger picture. We can see that Padme is in love with Anakin Skywalker, who is the son of Shmi Skywalker and The Force. Anakin and Padme have twins, Luke and Leia. However, Anakin does not know this and does not know about Leia. Luke is adopted by Owen Lars and Baru Whitesun. Owen turns out to be the son of Clegg Lars, who married Anakin's mother after Owen's mother died.

On the other hand, Leia is adopted by Bail Prestor Organa and Breha Antilles and she takes the Organa family name. Luke has a close, violent relationship with his father. They fight every time they see each other. Luke is friends with Han Solo, who marries Leia, and have a child named Ben. Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Ben are strong carriers of midichlorians. We can see a pattern from which we could begin to theorize that this is a hereditary trait.

As you can see, a Genogram can provide a lot of information and this is just the beginning. If you want to find out more information about Genograms, follow the links in the description.