When Mary responds to her mother's complaints about her father, she is trying to manage what in Bowenian therapy?

In Bowenian therapy, Mary’s response to her mother's complaints about her father exemplifies the concept of emotional triangulation. This occurs when two people in a relationship (in this case, Mary and her mother) bring in a third person (her father) into their emotional conflicts or struggles. By discussing her father's inadequacies or issues with her mother, Mary is inadvertently becoming a connector between her mother and father, and this can lead to the establishment of triangles that can complicate family dynamics.

Emotional triangulation often serves as a way to dissipate anxiety within the relationship by shifting the focus from the primary relationship conflict to a third party. This is a typical phenomenon in families where one individual may feel overwhelmed by the emotional tension between two other family members and thus intervenes, sometimes leading to the shifting of blame or emotional tension onto the introduced individual. Understanding this framework helps in identifying how such dynamics can perpetuate conflict and stress within family systems.