Sisterhood‐Brotherhood is Powerful: Sibling Sub‐Systems and Family Therapy

Abstract

Sibling interaction is an often overlooked aspect of family functioning. Individual development and many family behavior patterns may be attributed to autonomous activities within the sibling sub‐system. A number of phenomena in which siblings have profound influence upon one another are explored. Siblings collude and align with each other, at times help each other resist the powerful vertical influences of parents. Other sibling systems serve to enmesh the youngsters even more with parents. Important sib‐behavior patterns include: the death or departure of siblings; the interplay between the sibling sub‐system and the parenting system; and the roles that “well” siblings play vis‐à‐vis their “sick” siblings during family crises. The sibling relationship is seen as a life‐long process, highly influential throughout the life cycle. Understanding of sibling sub‐system structure and dynamics can lead to more flexible therapeutic interventions. Direct work with siblings provides the therapist with more options and greater leverage in producing change for all siblings, as well as for other family members.

The effects of siblings on the migration of women in two rural areas of Belgium and the Netherlands, 1829–1940

“…This widened choice offered by a spread-out sibling network probably increased a woman's power to decide for herself what she would do. In general, migration processes in families would have intensified lateral ties among siblings at the expense of vertical family coordination, and would have set sibling subsystems (Bank and Kahn 1975) more clearly against parental authority, affecting the intra-household balance of power and the bargaining positions of family members. Moreover, because rural and urban destinations selected different types of migrants, they might also have had different implications for who would be involved in decision-making about migration.…”

Adults with Mental Retardation and Their Aging Mothers: Impacts of Siblings

“…It is also possible that in the future, siblings may have to assume responsibility for the care of their aging parents as well as their brother or sister with retardation (Bank & Kahn, 1975;Goetting, 1986). Their willingness and capacity to expand their roles is unknown, but warrants considerable attention by program providers serving aging families with an adult dependent member.…”

Therapy with siblings in reorganizing families

“…Thus, they conclude that in disorganized families where parents relinquish executive functions, the unsatisfied needs of a child exert a pull that is responded to by siblings as a separate subsystem. Bank and Kahn (1975) have explored these issues further in their paper "Sisterhood-brotherhood is powerful." They indicate that minimal research has been done in this area, with sibling studies performed primarily in terms of birth order and sex and its influence on personality development.…”

“…This raises the hypothesis that there is some quality or characteristic of the reorganizing family that led the diagnostician to lean in the direction of focusing on the sibling subgroup. The result of these treatment efforts provides interesting clinical evidence to complement the current literature (Bank & Kahn, 1975;Pollock, 1978), which suggests that the sibling group is a powerful and overlooked subsystem within families.…”