Enmeshment - Wikipedia
Enmeshment is a concept in psychology and psychotherapy introduced by Salvador Minuchin to describe families where personal 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 the identified patient or family scapegoat.[ 5]
Enmeshment was also used by John Bradshaw to describe a state of cross-generational bonding within a family, whereby a child (normally of the opposite sex) becomes a surrogate spouse for their mother or father.[ 6]
The term is sometimes applied to engulfing codependent relationships,[ 7] where an unhealthy symbiosis is in existence.[ 8]
