To start out this New Year I wanted to give special thanks and appreciation to all those who visit my site and to the Murray Bowen Archives Project new website. http://murraybowenarchives.org.

This web site will give you access to much of Dr. Bowen’s original thinking as to the family as an emotional unit that guides our behavior.

Thankfully I stumble upon one of Bowen’ s papers while working at a psychiatric hospital in 1976. This began a life-long learning effort. Without this accident of fate my life course would have been far bumpier or shorter. Naturally I want to make Bowen’s original ideas available to everyone.

This year, through the financial help of many of you, more of Dr. Bowen’s unique contributions for transforming one’s family life are available to all. You know that developing the web site takes time and money.  We need funds to both prepare and post archival letters, audiovisual and other written materials. This is an enormous responsibility accomplished now with limited funds and many volunteer hours.

This many layered web site is a home a run for all of us who value the work of Murray Bowen.  Yes, it has taken us many years to accomplish all that you see on this web site. This year, for first time ever, videos of Dr. Bowen on the web can be found for all to see for free.  This is a huge accomplishment and I’m thrilled about it!

Whenever you have time to look you will find the following features:

1)     For an overview of the site: http://murraybowenarchives.org/explore-the-archives.html

2)     For a detailed look at Murray Bowen’s early family life and career: http://murraybowenarchives.org/themes.html

3)    The web site features weekly releases of Bowen’s letters selected by Clarence Boyd, in his book Commitment to Principles. http://murraybowenarchives.org/commitment-to-principles.html

4)     Monthly audio history interviews with people who worked and/or were coached by Dr. Bowen: These interviews give us more clarity about how Dr. Bowen lived theory in his interactions with others. So far there are over 50 interviews and more than half of them have been transcribed and are ready to be posted.   Three of the interviews are currently available:   http://murraybowenarchives.org/oral-history.html

5)     Videotapes of Dr. Bowen, many of which I video taped back in the eighties, as he  traveled around the country giving people a paradigm shifting way to think about human behavior.  http://murraybowenarchives.org/videos-GreenBay.html

6)     The link below is to a video that points to the importance of getting to know people in your extended family.  http://murraybowenarchives.org/videos-NuclearFamily.html

As you see the web site is a gateway to the vast details of Dr. Bowen’s life work given to all because of people like you!  Now anyone can have access to Bowen’s life, or some of the history of family therapy by just searching the web. Scholars are currently busy mining the archives for articles and we hope someone will write a biography of Bowen.  Overall the archives give testimony to how Bowen observed the social system, how the family influenced people and how people can influence any social system.  The web site is one more step in promoting people’s ability to learn how to manage self in a social system.

I hope you will take a good look at the archives and join me in donating to this effort.

All I did was click over to pay pal thought this link. What could be easier?

http://murraybowenarchives.org/support-us.html

Please give as generously as you can to TMBAP whose work is so important to me, and I believe, the world. There is so much to be grateful for as the Murray Bowen Archives web site has finally been brought to life by motivated volunteers and a professional staff, and is free to the public.

Thank you for your very kind and generous support.

Best Regards and Appreciation,

Andrea