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