Identifying Family Roles

Choose a fictional family from either a television series or movie. Once you have selected a fictional family, apply the content from the information below on family roles and identify each of the fictional family members roles, providing an explanation or example of why you determined that they fulfill that specific family role.

Address the following questions:

 (1) Name of the television series or movie, and the names of the characters selected.

(2) Label each family members role. 

(3) Explain why you believe the characters fit with the identified roles.

Family Roles

Family roles are the collection of rights and duties based on cultural expectations and how individuals play their parts. Family roles are the script by which the actors of a family carry out their individual parts. In healthy families, roles are fluid and individuals in a system have a say in the part or role they play. In families struggling with addiction boundaries are often prescribed from the top down (by those who wield the power) or are developed by individual members through a process of default (no other place of fit exists). These roles are difficult to change given homeostatic forces. Classic alcoholic family roles are listed below (Wegscheider-Cruse, S., 1985).

• The Victim/Chemical Dependent – The person who demands the focus of the family. Everything just happens to this person. It is someone else’s fault.

• Enabler (often the spouse or parent) – The caretaker of the family. He/she is super responsible one. This person often intervenes so that others do not have to take responsibility for their actions.

• Hero – The person who is going to give legitimacy to the family. The hero represents someone in the family who is “good” as opposed to all of the “bad” ones in the family. As the functioning of the family worsens, the hero will try harder to succeed.

• Scapegoat – The troublemaker in the family. The scapegoat takes the blame for all of the family’s problems. He/she often withdraws from the family and looks for belonging somewhere else. He/she gets attention in destructive ways and is often a distraction.

• Lost Child – Spends much time alone or being busy. The lost child has learned to stay out of the whirlwind of the family. They receive little attention, either positive or negative.

• Mascot – The family member who brings comedy relief into the family. It is the mascot’s job to lessen the tension in the family via the use of comedy.

For families who find recovery, establishing and maintaining good boundaries is a key to transforming unhealthy roles into healthy more flexible roles.

Examples: 

(1) Shameless (showtime series): Frank (father), Monica (mother), Fiona (oldest sibling), Lip (oldest brother), Ian (second oldest brother), Debbie (youngest sister), Carl (third oldest brother), and Liam (youngest sibling) 

(2) Frank (addicted loved one; enabler), Monica (addicted loved one; enabler), Fiona (enabler, hero); Lip (hero), Ian (lost child), Debbie (lost child), Carl (clown/mascot); and Liam (hero) 

(3) Frank is both an addicted family member due to his extensive history of alcoholism, and polysubstance abuse, but is also an enabler with his wife Monica. Lip is the hero, as he is viewed to be the family member with the most chances to be successful due to his high level of intelligence. Ian and Debbie typically are the lost children of the family, as the middle children there is less attention given to them, each are asked to pull their weight to help with financial management but with little concern that they cannot manage these activities or should just be "kids." Carl's acting out behaviors, are sometimes concerning, but often add comic relief to painful family situations, making him the clown of the family.