The Study of Crisis in Families and Society: The El Paso/Juarez Border as a Social Laboratory

The goal of current research is to use Bowen theory to develop the potential for cooperation and thoughtful responses to serious human problems, informed by science and systems thinking. The specific focus is to learn more about the factors involved in current problems of violence and societal disintegration at the Texas/Mexico Border.

Background to Current Project

August, 2009: CSNSF Border Programs held a conference focused on Families, Crisis, and Systems Thinking. Dr. Dan Papero presented an overview of natural systems thinking provided in the research of Dr. Jack Calhoun and in Bowen theory. A panel of leaders from community organizations, churches, and institutions in Juarez and El Paso discussed their questions about the implications of this thinking with an audience of over 30 people from both sides of the Border. The DVD of this remarkable conference is available through the Bowen Theory Resource Store.

Ada Luisa Trillo -- Juarez: A Social Laboratory

Ms. Trillo uses Bowen theory to identify factors that contribute to problems of violence and societal disintegration, using her home, Cuidad Juarez, as the laboratory for study.  The DVD of this conference is now available through the Bowen Theory Resource Store.

August 2009 presentation at the conference on Families, Crisis, and Systems Thinking

She is extending this study to include:       

• 4 to 6 studies of people directly affected by violence and a review of markers of increased anxiety measured physiologically through heart rate variability and through such behaviors  sleep patterns, concentration problems, isolation, irritability, and hypervigilence.  This study would be stratified to examine if and how social class may impact the reactions to violence.
• Administration of Dr. Elizabeth Skowron’s Differentiation of Self Inventory among leaders in the city to cross reference assessment of Differentiation of Self with particular actions taken by leaders to address the crisis facing Juarez.

Investigating Cutoff and Contact with Family for Those Most Involved in Violence

Ada Trillo has postulated that those who are most involved in the violence at the Border, both those who are killed and those who do the killing, are individuals who have recently moved to Juarez from interior Mexico. There is evidence that these individuals have few roots in the border neighborhoods or communities and have little contact with their family of origin.   

This research includes identification of facts about those who are most involved in the violence. She proposes to look at statistics for reported crimes through police records and media and to conduct content analysis of police and journal records on place of birth for both victims and victimizers as well as length of stay in the city.  Ms. Trillo will review studies already conducted by private research groups and universities.  Access to the records is difficult and finding the contact to have the most access to the information is still a challenge but underway.  A representative sample of that population would involve quite a bit of leg work as well as time to locate and access a reasonable sample size.

An additional piece to this research requires contacting at least some of the families involved to interview relatives about amount of contact with family, both nuclear and extended, and to develop family histories whenever possible.

CSNSF has featured this research for contributions.  Please contact Ada Trillo for detailed information about the budget involved for this study.  Ms. Trillo is available for presentations on this project and her work at the Border. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

A Next Step: Exploring the Roots of Violence and the Roots of Cooperation

		Louise Rauseo organized a work study meeting that was held in El Paso in February, 2010, to involve more of the local academic and community leadership in the exploration of basic human processes that can lead to violence, or on other hand, to cooperation.  Twenty-four invited leaders from El Paso and from Juarez attended at no charge.
		Dr. Dan Papero (Faculty member at The Bowen Center)  began the day and closed the day with presentations on science and systems thinking in this societal dilemma.
		Dr. Stephen Suomi (Chief of Comparative Ethology Lab at NICHD/NIH) presented findings of his research team that provide a comparative perspective on violence and cooperation in primates and humans.

Participants from CSNSF, University of Texas in El Paso and New Mexico State University, and from local community organizations and civic associations made short presentations on their current perspective and questions for further study.

In the afternoon, the participants formed workgroups with CSNSF faculty to engage the application of theory and growing knowledge to current conditions at the Border through various professions and positions in the community.  These participants will form the basis for ongoing study groups working toward a larger symposium in the Spring of 2011 to build upon what has been learned and accomplished over the year. These research projects grow out of long term work at the Border to use Bowen theory in research and community service that address challenges predictable for much of the world. Louise Rauseo is available for presentations on this work.

Research Focus on Emotional Cutoff and Migration

For 30 years, the concept of emotional cutoff has challenged me to think about the impact of emigration, its connection to cutoff and the implications in the lifetime functioning for descendants. Both in my own family and in clinical families these concepts have been worth a lifetime of study. Based on a broader understanding of natural systems, the concept of cutoff doesn't stand separate from the other concepts described by Bowen. That is part of the ongoing learning and complexity of study.

1994 - 1996 - Moving to El Paso, TX to be close to the US/Mexico border, several opportunities presented themselves to study clinical families and women in a clinic to learn more about the impact of migration on families. (A pilot study there could not be continued for lack of funding.)

1997 - 1999 - El Paso and Cd. Juarez, MX - In-depth study of several clinical families led to the hypothesis that family process and some emotional cutoff is part of most emigration decisions. This appears to operate at an automatic emotional level that is seldom recognized except in retrospect and by gathering facts of family history.

2001- 2003 - Continuing study of migration patterns in other animals led to further evidence that emotional process in the group plays some part in migration. Published chapter in Emotional Cutoff: Bowen Theory Perspectives ed. by Peter Titelman "Migration and Emotional Cutoff".

2003 - Present - Ongoing pilot studies. These include families at the US/Mexico border who are able to gather facts about the family functioning from branches that are cutoff from the family of origin and those who are in contact. My work involves continuing contact with the studies in humans other mammals to identify the forces that are present at the time of increased migration. Funding these studies would allow collaboration with anthropologists and others interested in these findings. Programs based on this thinking and the work of other scientists are always part of this effort.

Presentation: The Nature of Migration (3.8 MB)