FEST Writing Group

1. Emotional Systems and Triangles in Evolution and the Family

    The human family is the emotional system in which Murray Bowen observed patterns of emotional triangles operating.  He wrote much about emotional triangles and how they function with predictable patterns for good and for ill. He observed that “The theory states that the triangle, a three-person emotional configuration is the molecule or the basic building block of any emotional system, whether it is in the family or any other group.” (373)  Seeing predictable and dynamic movements in relationship triangles was a radical departure from the conventional focus on stimulus-response interaction or synchrony between individuals or in dyads.  “On a broad descriptive level, a two-person relationship is emotionally unstable with limited adaptability for dealing with anxiety and life stresses.  It automatically becomes a triangular emotional system with much higher level of flexibility and adaptability with which to tolerate and deal with anxiety” (400)  Therapists, researchers and family members make use of studying triangle patterns in the family to better understand both symptom development and also avenues for solutions and improved adaptations.  

Dan Papero, a Bowen theory scholar and therapist, describes ways that triangles distribute emotional tension in a three-person circuit such that tension can be reduced between two people and increased for another relationship in the circuit. Triangling dilutes the effects of tension for some while others absorb more of the tension.  Emotional triangles can function to “separate, mediate, console and coerce” members when stability is disturbed.  (Ref)

Victoria Harrison (This author) organized a protocol to study physiological reactions in three family triangles.  The measures indicate that indeed there is distribution of anxious physiology between family members and that this varies depending upon the pattern in triangles between mother and father and each of three children. The distribution of anxious physiology between family members corresponded to reactivity measures and to symptoms. (Ref) Rather than regulated within a dyad, each relationship is regulating the others in triangles and interlocking triangles.  (Do a diagram here) The relationship between A and B governs the relationship between B and C and C and A. 

Triangling involves biological reactions as well as psychological states and behaviors that operate outside awareness. Distance, closeness, conflict, competition, cooperation, and focus on a third are observable behaviors that ride atop automatic physiology and neural patterns operating in triangles.  

Although Dr. Bowen observed and described emotional triangles in patterns of interaction between humans, he speculated that this configuration would be present in all of nature.  “I cannot substantiate it, but I believe that ‘triangle’ emotional forces must apply to all forms of life.  The protoplasmic dance is too precise for it to be otherwise.” (400) 

Another Bowen theory scholar and therapist, Dr. Laurie Lassiter, studied the work of Lyn Margulis and published a chapter on triangles with Dr. Margulis. (Ref) She described the automatic process of sacrificing self for the stability of the unit that could be observed in molecular forms of life.  (Ref) Lassiter also described ways that family triangles operate to sustain and stabilize some members of the family while sacrificing the functioning, and sometimes, the survival, of others.(Ref) Lassiter examined ways that triangles in the human family and in cellular organisms isolate and influence individuals to function in the service of the group, even if they sacrifice survival or reproduction.  (Ref) 

This chapter examines evidence that Bowen’s observations about triangles as the fundamental pattern of relationships apply to all the various and varying emotional systems along the human phylogenetic lineage.  If the relationship system of a species serves to synchronize individuals with the resources necessary for life or buffer them from the dangers and stresses in the natural and social environment, does this occur through triangles? 

On walking about my back yard with Dr. David Crews, a scientist who studies reptiles, we saw three green anoles.  Two of the smaller ones were flanking the head of a larger one who was displaying his pink throat.  “It’s a triangle,” I exclaimed.  “It’s a coincidence,” Dr. Crews said.  Years later, it occurred to me that perhaps it was both.  Perhaps temporary and coincidental triangles formed with rising density.  Perhaps those that provided advantages in relation to the natural and social conditions survived to be preserved and modified through natural selection.  

Phylogenetic Lineage: Triangles and Early Cell Life

Triangles may have begun in accidental and opportunistic fashion with biochemical reactions between cells, as archaea and bacteria emerged from the biochemical substrate of early earth.  They were likely temporary and transient. Proximity and prolonged opportunity, considered necessary for the formation of collectives and collective intelligence by scientists at the Sante Fe Institute, were also likely conditions in which triangle patterns occurred as rising density of single cell life proliferated. (SFI)

The process of natural selection promotes recurrence of behaviors and relationship patterns that provide advantages to a species for survival, adaptation, and reproduction. Coincidental encounters and reactions to contact increased with growing density and the changing environment.  It is possible that triangles between early cells that were particularly beneficial for survival and adaptation to the natural environment survived and became more persistent and predictable. 

Prokaryotes are not known for forming permanent associations with each other, but the work of Dr. Erik Hom on the nature of symbiosis suggests that contemporary prokaryotic cells like bacteria do form symbiotic relationships with other forms of life, including humans.  Depending upon environmental context and duration, these relationships may become functional units or may simply be temporary arrangements.  In fascinating presentations at The Bowen Center Annual Symposium in 2022, Dr. Hom discussed a recent publication, “Symbiosis and the Anthropocene.” In which he described symbiosis as “a marriage between different organisms” that, by chance, forms a unit or “suite of symbiotic partners.”  In a recent publication, Dr. Hom described more of an “open marriage” in which multiple microbes are engaged in complex, interdependent interactions. (Jurburg, Hom and Chatzinotas, 2023).  These observations of contemporary prokaryotes beg for the study of triangle process as part of their capacity to adapt, maintain stability and evolve.  

Phylogenetic Lineage: Triangles and Eukaroytes

Dr. Lyn Margulis pioneered research into ways that a new form of cell, the nucleated eukaryote, evolved about 2 Million Years Ago, when beneficial associations between formerly independent prokaryotic cells, each with a particular survival skill, occurred in trial and error fashion.  Over the first three billion years of life, increasing density of cell life and changing environmental conditions contributed toward evolution of complex nucleated cells, a cellular emotional system which incorporates relationships, perhaps in triangle fashion.  The ability for two cells to stick together likely depended upon a third cell.  Formerly independent cells join forces within a cell membrane, depend upon each other and are no longer able to survive alone. 

One could consider biological interlocking triangles as a fundamental process by which individual cells become permanently “stuck together” within a common membrane.  Could the  dependence between two or more prokaryotic cells, each providing advantages for survival maintained within a larger cell, represent an early triangle, one that persists in all plant and animal species to evolve? 

          One recent study of contemporary algae identified three processes in evolution from unicellular to multicellular life: “the evolution of cell cycle regulation to form cooperative groups via cell=cell adhesion, the evolution of organismal size, and the evolution of differentiated germ and soma cells.”  (Hanschen et al )  Is it possible to identify the way that molecular triangles operate in these processes? 

          Several of the scientists who presented their research at the Collective Intelligence conference at the Sante Fe Institute (References) observed that proximity and contact were factors necessary for a collective to form and begin to function as a unit.  No one has studied triangles as the “molecule” of the relationship process within a collective.     

           Triangles become obvious once sexual reproduction evolves. Sex embodies the biological triangle between male and female and offspring.   With sexual reproduction, a single set of chromosomes from each gamete form a paired set so that the offspring have a combination of genes from both parents in every cell of the body (Margulis, 1987; Margulis & Sagan, 1986). The germ cells provide future generations species-specific information for the developmental blueprint for life.  Various relationship patterns involved in conceiving and rearing young are also necessary for the part that reproduction plays in evolution. Do the variety of triangle patterns that occur provide adaptation to the natural and social environment over the human phylogenetic lineage? 

Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles: Marine Invertebrate

Marine invertebrates include phyla considered the earliest animals on earth, qualifying them as the earliest animal on the human phylogenetic lineage. The comb jellies, creatures that belongs to this phylum, have the capacity to fuse biologically.  A 2024 study demonstrated that two jellies could fuse nervous and digestive systems to a degree that two become one.  In the lab, fusion occurs under stress and is considered to be an advantage for adapting quickly to changing and challenging marine environments.  Comb jellies live throughout the oceans in what would be considered low levels of density. Reproducing as hermaphrodites affords this early form of life a rapid way to duplicate and adapt.   (Jokura, K., Anttonen, T., Rodriguez-Santiago, M. & Arenas, O. M. Curr. Biol. 34, R889–R890 (2024).)  There are no studies of triangling in this representative of early animal life, though a three jelly configuration has not been the subject of research. 

Colonial jelly fish, the marine invertebrate most likely to have been the transition to fish, Iive, feed, and reproduce as part of a colony of related, often identical individuals. The colony, however, is not produced via fusion.  Communication within the colony occurs through diffusion of chemicals between cell membranes and nets of nerves that provide colony wide fast responses.  No one member can deviate from the group, except when a colony becomes large and baby individuals may bud off on their own.  No one has researched how a colony might be organized in triangle fashion or whether triangles within the colony might distribute resources and information that contribute to growth and influence those who bud and become a next generation.  

Any triangles for marine invertebrate would be temporary and transient. There is no evidence for pair bonds or family relations that maintain a particular triangle pattern between specific individuals.  Some species are sexual, with direct and indirect fertilization.  When fertilization is indirect, the male is distant and there is also less maternal investment in egg development, less protection of eggs. There is little coordination between males and females with indirect fertilization. Ovulation and spawning respond to temperature and photoperiod associated with food supply for the larvae.  This is a triangle the operates primarily with distance between all participants.  

For species where Internal fertilization occurs, there is greater coordination between male and female.  The female increases biological closeness with offspring through greater maternal investment in nutrient rich eggs, fewer eggs. Females of some species retain embryos within or upon their body until young emerge more capable of independence, a particularly close relationship between mother and young, with males at a distance in this triangle. (Pechenik, 1998).  

Many consider a coral-like colonial animal similar to a sea squirt to be responsible for the transition to fish. Social sea squirts attach at their bases to form clumped communities of genetically identical clones. Sea squirts form colonies by budding off many small, genetically identical and interconnected individuals called zooids. Giribet, Gonzalo (27 April 2018). “Phylogenomics resolves the evolutionary chronicle of our squirting closest relatives”. BMC Biology. 16 (1): 49. doi:10.1186/s12915-018-0517-4. ISSN 1741-7007. PMC 5924484. PMID 29703197.

Triangle patterns have not been studied or described for either the early invertebrates where fusion occurs, nor for versions in which identical individuals form a colony.  Were they to be studied, I predict that there would be triangle patterns of distance and dependence between individuals in all cases.               

Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles: Fish

Fish are the first phyla with a backbone along the human lineage.  Vertebrates lose the capacity to reproduce through rapid replication but fish maintain indirect and direct fertilization. Variation in triangle patterns involved in reproducing and rearing young appear to be associated with higher and lower numbers of young and their survival. Fertilization for most fish is external and involves temporary coordination of male and female when proximity permits.  External fertilization involves triangles between males and females and young with temporary contact and persistent distance.  Fish who live in groups of related and unrelated individuals without particular relationship triangles reproduce at a distance, spawning a multitude of eggs to attract males swimming by to fertilize them enmass.  Baby fish hatch and are on their own.  Environmental cues such as light, temperature, and food supply are primary influences over the biology of reproduction, but relationship factors such as population density and presence of predators can delay or interrupt fertility or access to mates.  No particular triangle pattern, other than distance between any angles, has been associated with adaptation to most of the environmental and social factors fish face. 

Triangles for fish that evolved internal fertilization are an exception and include long term patterns of pair bonds and prolonged care of young. (Connaughton & Katsumi, 1999; Stacey, 1987). Cyclid, for example, have evolved internal fertilization and family relationships, in which males and females mate for life, rear young together, and live around their offspring.  There is far more hormonal and behavioral synchrony between these fish for courtship, the timing of fertility, and ties to young. They experience less influence from the group and more from individual, particular relationships, perhaps in triangling patterns. The greater involvement between fish family members might yield to examination of whether patterns of conflict, distance, reciprocal functioning, occur and how they may be adaptive to social or environmental conditions.  A 2015 article on “mate guarding among fish” is one of the few examples of a study moving in the direction of triangle research. Male fish remain near a female partner and drive away competing males in what the authors describe as “triadic relationships” in medaka fish. (Takeuchi, et al. 2015)  

The species considered to manage the transition from water to land along the human phylogenetic lineage are lobe-finned lung fish. These not quite fish and not yet amphibian exhibit a range of triangle relationship patterns in reproduction and rearing young.  Although all species are seasonal breeders, stimulated to become fertile and mate when water temperature is warming and the rainy season begins, there are a variety of relationship patterns, triangles perhaps, involved. 

A female lobe-finned lung fish attaches herself to the side of a male where she lays 50 – 100 eggs. The male fertilizes them immediately in nearby water.  Variation occurs in the triangle between male and female and young they then rear.  Some lobe-finned lung fish retain eggs in the mother’s body cavity where the young hatch and develop internally before launched as larvae. The male is distant or absent. Other species build a pit-like nest on the bottom of water, where the female lays eggs and males guard the nest, while the female distances.  Both male and female may be more removed from their young in a pattern in which eggs are laid on acquatic plants where they hatch and fend for themselves. (Karl Heinz Luling for Encyclopedia Britannica. Jul 19, 2024) This variation in distance and closeness between mates and with young is ripe for research about whether a particular triangle pattern is better adapted to which environment.

Under what conditions is more distance adaptive; under what conditions is more persistent contact adaptive? When there is more persistent contact, do a greater variety of triangle patterns, such as conflict, reciprocal functioning, and focus on a third, occur?  

         Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles: Amphibian and Reptile

         Those amphibians responsible for the transition of life from water to land demonstrate increased involvement between mother and young during development of eggs, and care of eggs and young.  There is little contact between mates and no prolonged contact between mothers and young. Environmental conditions, such as day length or rainfall, primarily govern fertility, but a variety of temporary triangles are evident in the process of reproducing and rearing young.  Frogs, toads, salemanders and other amphibians live on land, near water, throughout the world.  Most species are solitary within proximity of a group. However, females of some species have been observed to establish a dominance hierchy and mate with the same male over time in environments where territory is limited and population density is present. (Karniski, C. Polygyny with mate fidelity in the saxicolous frog. Commun Biol 3, 530 (2020) )

The variety of triangle patterns also include ones in which males and females remain distant with indirect fertilization and females provide minimal care of egg (Diagram); ones in which males compete with each other for territory and in courtship for a female (Diagram); ones in which internal fertilization requires greater closeness between males and females and in which males care for young (Diagram). (Brown, Morales & Summers (2010); Wake, 1999).  With such widespread species and variety of triangles, it would be fascinating if studies could expand upon which triangles occur under the various conditions of life. 

         Reptiles assure life on land through triangles with increased contact between mates and greater involvement between mother and young. Not only does interaction between females and with males stimulate ovulatory hormones and egg development, but biological reactions also maintain triangle patterns. (Crews, 1983; 1987). Courtship behavior, with visual, tactile, and pheromonal cues, produces cooperation or tolerance for the proximity necessary for copulation, while competition between males for territory and female attention involves hormonal reactions for each and all. 

         Although most reptiles live more solitary lives drawn together for breeding when conditions are correct, a few recently discovered species of Australian lizard and skink are known to live in family groups, maintain life-long contact with mates and with the next generation of young. The triangles for these family reptiles also include aggressive defense of territory and kin from intruder lizards, though a straggling lizard may be accepted within a group. (While, Uller & Wapstra, 2009; Davis, et al., 2011; R. Shine.) Again, it would be useful to know more about the conditions in which triangle patterns vary and how those patterns afford the capacity to survive, reproduce, and adapt.  

                  Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles:  Mammals & Primates

 Variation in relationships between mates, between generations of kin and within the social group is a hallmark of mammalian evolution. Although mammalian brains and biology are adapted to climate, food supply and the natural environment, relationships with kin regulate individual physiology and behavior to an extent that is more pronounced and more prevalent that in more solitary species and phyla.    Internal fertilization with various relationships between mates, internal retention of eggs and embryo, birth of more mature young with degrees of dependence upon parents, and a wide variety of associations between generations and kin, distinguish mammalian triangles with variation within an overall increased involvement between all angles in reproducing triangles.   

Mammals also demonstrate the widest variety of relationships associated with adaptation and reproduction:  solitude with multiple temporary mates and brief contact with young; one male with numerous females and offspring: one female with young and many mates; monogamy; family units within a larger group. Even a eusocial lifestyle, with a single reproducing female supported by males and offspring whose functions are determined largely by the group, has been discovered in the naked mole rat. 

This variation leaves mammals ripe for the study of triangle patterns and how they function.  How do triangle patterns afford adaptation to food supply, density, and environmental conditions? How do triangle patterns regulate variation in who reproduces and in number of young, in lifespan and development?  

         Martha McClintock (1987) illustrates the adaptive nature of various relationship patterns in which triangles can be recognized through  comparison of the naked mole rat, the prairie and montaine vole, the Norway rat, and the golden hamster, all species of rodents who live and breed in different ways. Naked mole rats, a colonial mammal, live in underground burrows where pheromonal, behavioral, and sensory signals regulate the social behavior and physiology of individuals. Distancing is less available as a pattern of reacting.  In the naked mole rat triangle pattern, one breeds with a few males and reproduces for the colony while workers or sentinels function for her and the colony.  Ovarian development is suspended in females who are active in foraging, protecting the burrow and caring for young. Conflict is minimal until the mother mole rat dies or is removed. When the triangle pattern is disturbed, competition rises among worker females.  A breeding female, often larger than her sisters, will emerge and begin ovarian development while biological reactions in the triangle suspend ovulation in the other females.  The relatively fixed triangles are sustained by hormonal patterns that regulate each angle in relation to the others.  

         Golden hamsters illustrate another coordination between triangles and the natural environment. Individual males and females live alone in underground burrows. Each emerge in response to hormonal changes stirred first by day light and then in reaction to each other.  The closeness between male and female is brief and the mother will bear and rear their pups alone. Young mature quickly and disperse lest offspring in this solitary species attack each other. 

One study of two closely related species of vole illustrates ways in which differences in degrees of connectedness between mates and with young, the family triangle, function. The monogamous prairie vole triangle is characterized by increased involvement for all angles in the triangle: long-term bonding, preference for close proximity between mates and  increased care of young by both parents. These family groups form within a larger communal group or colony.  Interactions between a monogamous pair and their young maintain levels of oxytocin, vasopressin and dopamine.  Prairie voles exhibit elevated cortisol when separated from mate and kin.  There are other triangle patterns described in prairie vole where contact is maintained over time.  Social signals from a mother suppress reproductive hormones in female young.  Females become fertile when they leave home or when their mother dies.  When density is low, males and females remain together after mating and rear young together.  Under conditions of increased density and competition for scarce resources, female vole live more often in female groups in which female suppression of fertility and mating is increased. I would draw these triangle patterns as closeness in which each angle functions for the other or sacrifices her independence for the other.  

         The polyandrous montaine vole live in isolated burrows spread widely, and sometimes densely, over prairie and farm land. Distance is the prevailing pattern. There is no contact between males and females except when mating, when hormonal changes occur in response to changes in daylight and temperature. The female provides what little parental care is provided before the young mature and disperse.  Hormonal reactions maintain distance between male and female and adult young as a dominant pattern, except ruing courtship and during birth and lactation. If distancing is not possible, conflict can occur. (Young, 2014).

Articles about Norway rats almost all describe their habits in an effort to control or eliminate or poison them.  Martha McClintock is an exception. Norway rats live in large groups or colonies, consisting of as few as 15 and as many as 150. They are among the most abundant mammal and can live in varied habitat though seem to prefer proximity to humans.  Colonies are usually structured into subgroups, which might consist of pairs, harems with or without offspring, unisexual groups and/or single males and females (Calhoun, 1979; de Boer et al., 2016; Timmermans, 1978).

Although there seem to be no special relationships between individuals, Norway rats are social and exhibit grooming, protection, and aggression against outsiders. Dominance and deference patterns occur between males within the colony. When females live together, estrous is synchronized within the social group such that females tend to come into heat and ovulate on the same day.  Female groups may form hierarchy in which some females sacrifice their own reproduction to nurse the young of another.  Pheromonal cues about the social environment regulate fertility in female Norway rats.  (McClintock, 1987). It would be my guess that triangles form in opportunistic fashion and shift quickly in reaction to social contact within a colony.  

         Most of the relationship patterns possible for mammals are evident in primates. The majority of primate species live in complex social groups that range in size from small families to hundreds of individuals. Even among more solitary species, often arboreal, individuals are in contact with a complex social network through olfactory and vocal communications (Smuts 1987).  Dixon (1998) describes five major patterns of mating that could be considered as variations in triangle patterns:  monogamy, in which one male and one female establish a long-term, exclusive bond and in which each contributes toward rearing of young; polygyny, in which one male mates with several females and in which the relationships are persistent and consistent; polyandry, in which females mate with two or more males, forming long-term and consistent relationships; polygynandry, in which several males mate with several females in temporary, non-exclusive relationships within a consistent social group; and dispersed, in which several males mate with several females in short-term, non-exclusive relationships but in which individuals live at a distance from each other. 

A variety of triangle patterns, both between species, and within a species provide primates complex and counterbalancing hormonal and nervous system responses involved in survival and adaptation as well as in reproduction. Conflict and cooperation occur between two in relation to a third.  Alliances form and dissolve.  There are friendships and pairs.  A variety of dominance hierarchies are species-specific, either between males, females, or for the troop.  Dixon (1998) describes evidence that New world monkeys are more regulated by relationship within the social group than directly by environmental factors. Relationship patterns for our primate ancestors, such as dominance hierarchy, mating strategies and cooperation in childcare coordinate must have all occurred within triangle patterns.   While mammals represent the widest range of relationships possible between generations and between mates, each species has a relatively fixed, species-specific pattern that does not vary much.  Primates have increased variation between individuals within species-typical triangle patterns.   

Great Apes, chimpanzee, bonobo and gorilla, are considered to be the primate ancestors responsible for the transition to hominid and on to homo sapiens.  Triangling in these species……To be written.  

Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles:  The Human Family

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is very clear in the text that accompanies the Human Origins project: “No matter how the calculation is done, the big point still holds: humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos are more closely related to one another than either is to gorillas or any other primate.  From the perspective of this powerful test (DNA analysis) of biological kinship, humans are not only related to the great apes – we are one.” (Smithsonian) This study of triangles along the longer phylogenetic lineage indicates that we also have inherited automatic patterns of triangling that are built into other forms of life.  We are a variation on a common theme, with some differences that are unique. 

1. The capacity for both variation and consistency in triangles and triangling extend beyond our primate relatives. 
2. The capacity to observe triangle process
3. The ability to recognize one’s part in triangles 
4. The capacity to choose to play one’s part differently. 

Although triangles are as fundamental, they are less fixed. 

Include what Dr. Bowen wrote about how triangles function differently at higher and lower levels of differentiation.  

Phylogenetic Lineage and Triangles:  Summary 

References:

Takeuci, Hideaki, et al.  2015.  “An essential role of the artinine asotocin system in mate-guarding behaviors in triadic relationships of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes). In PLOS Genetics 11(2): e1005009. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005009.

Life-history evolution in reptiles

R Shine

Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 36 (1), 23-46