TABLE 2-4. Principle of Symmetry in the Extended Family System
Extreme |
Emotional Category |
Opposite Extreme |
One child takes all |
Responsibility for parent(s) |
One takes none |
One child at home |
Distance from parents |
One child far away |
Unable to conceive |
Fertility |
Pregnant before marriage |
One sibling has affair |
Infidelity (or obesity, or any variable) |
Other sibling's spouse has affair |
One child just like parent |
Identification |
Other child completely different from same parent |
Exactly the same |
Similarity between opposite-sex parent and spouse |
Complete different |
Diagnosed and isolated |
Symptomatic family member |
Allowed to tyrannize family with symptom |
Surfaces in marriage |
Severe problem in nuclear family |
Surfaces in child |
Exactly opposite to the last |
Choice of new post or new clergyperson |
Exactly the same as the last |