The following is a collective case study focused on the effects of narcissistic personality disorder and how it relates to the unfolding relationship between my parents.
The Genogram
A few years ago, I was encouraged to do a background check on my family. As a part of a graduate school course I was taking for a class in understanding therapeutic methods and practices, I completed my all-time favorite assignment. My assignment was to create a digital family genogram. A genogram is used to track history via recordkeeping information about family members and family relationships over at least three generations (McGoldrick, Gerson & Petry, 2008). The information is displayed in graphic form. This graphic form is a more advanced version of a family tree.
I found the genogram quite helpful and amazingly insightful as it made it easy for me to see the context of my family’s history. Not only this, but it was also quite easy to see the patterns of health problems and illnesses within my family. This project was fascinating to say the least, and it was the only assignment where I was intrigued enough to reach out to my parents for assistance in gathering information about my family. I learned so much from creating a family genogram. The profound historical connections both inside and outside of my family enabled me to understand behaviors, patterns, and relationships. Plus, I even discovered of a lot of mind-blowing family secrets.
Delving Deeper
A look at my family regarding the genogram revealed information about my parents and their families that they did not actually provide me. Along with what they did provide me, I was able to use the genogram to gain additional information to draw my own conclusions regarding any missing information. Needless to say, I gained an overall picture of how the culprit of narcissistic personality disorder pervaded my family. I came to see and even understand how mental illness disorders and personality disorders have greatly affected my family over the years. In my next post, we will take a closer at my dad.
Reference
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Petry, S. (2008). Genograms (Third ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.
My Voice Unchained 