Enmeshment

Uncommon card · No. 134327

Enmeshment is a concept in psychology and psychotherapy introduced by Salvador Minuchin to describe families where personal boundaries are diffused, sub-systems undifferentiated, and over-concern for others leads to a loss of autonomous development. According to this hypothesis, by being enmeshed in parental needs, trapped in a discrepant role function, a child may lose their capacity for self-direction; their own distinctiveness, under the weight of "psychic incest"; and, if family pressures increase, may end up becoming the identified patient or family scapegoat. Enmeshment was also used by John Bradshaw to describe a state of cross-generational bonding within a family, whereby a child (usually of the opposite sex) becomes a surrogate spouse for their mother or father. The term is sometimes applied to engulfing codependent relationships, where an unhealthy symbiosis is in existence. Others suggest that for the toxically enmeshed child, the adult's carried feelings may be the only ones...

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