In the previous two categories the couple relationship is the focus of anxiety without it significantly impacting on the functioning of the next generation.

By contrast, the family projection process describes how children develop symptoms when they get caught up in the previous generation's anxiety about relationships.

The child with the least emotional separation from his/her parents is said to be the most vulnerable to developing symptoms.

Bowen describes this as occurring when a child responds anxiously to the tension in the parents' relationship, which in turn is mistaken for a problem in the child.  A detouring triangle is thus set in motion, as attention and protectiveness are shifted to the child.  Within this cycle of reciprocal anxiety, a child becomes more demanding or more impaired.

An example would be when an illness in a child distracts one parent from the pursuit of closeness in the marriage.  As tension in the marriage is relieved, both spouses become invested in treating their child's condition, which may in turn become chronic or psychosomatic.

As in all of Bowen's constructs, 'intergenerational projection' is said to occur in all families in varying degrees.

Many intergenerational influences may determine which child becomes the focus of family anxiety and at what stage of the life cycle this occurs.  The impact of crises and their timing also influences the vulnerability of certain children.

Bowen viewed traumatic events as significant in highlighting the family processes rather than as actually 'causing' them.