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Enmeshment is a concept inpsychology andpsychotherapy introduced bySalvador Minuchin to describe families wherepersonal boundaries are diffused, sub-systems undifferentiated, and over-concern for others leads to a loss of autonomous development.[1] According to this hypothesis, by being enmeshed in parental needs, trapped in a discrepant role function,[2] a child may lose their capacity for self-direction;[3] their own distinctiveness, under the weight of "psychic incest";[4] and, if family pressures increase, may end up becoming theidentified patient or familyscapegoat.[5]
Enmeshment was also used byJohn Bradshaw to describe a state of cross-generational bonding within a family, whereby a child (usually of the opposite sex) becomes a surrogate spouse for their mother or father.[6]
The term is sometimes applied to engulfingcodependent relationships,[7] where an unhealthy symbiosis is in existence.[8]
Others suggest that for the toxically enmeshed child, the adult'scarried feelings may be the only ones they know, outweighing and eclipsing their own.[9]
There are important cultural differences in how "enmeshment" would be experienced or conceptualized, however. One study found that "enmeshed" adults in the United Kingdom experienced more depression than those in Italy, because of cultural expectations in moreindividualistic versus morecollectivist cultures.[10]