One of the dynamics that has been emphasized in our discussion of dysfunctional families is that these dysfunctional influences occurred typically from the age of zero to six, when our personality is being formed. This means that as a child you had no control over the influences you were receiving. You were powerless over the behavior of the adults in your home and no matter how much you may have desired the dysfunction to end you were a dependent child and had no capacity to stop it. So as to avoid blame, please remember your parents did the best they could and likely repeated the parenting they had received. This is one way in which multigenerational trauma endures and plays out in our communication patterns. Regardless if the foregoing passage applies to you, as an adult you have a choice as to how you respond to negative influences.

Carefully read the following fact pattern and provide two responses.

1). You confide in a co-worker, you consider a friend, that you found a way to appear to have checked in on time to work when in reality you are absent and management has yet to figure out your scam. A few months go by and now your co-worker has become your immediate supervisor. Explain what you think will happen to your status in the company and why.

2). How might your analysis change if you knew that your co-worker-friend-now-boss came from an abusive, neglectful, or shaming family and why?