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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Family Secret (disambiguation).

A family secret is a secret kept within a family. Most families have secrets, but the kind and importance vary. Family secrets can be shared by the whole family, by some family members or kept by an individual member of the family. The secret can relate to taboo topics, rule violations or just conventional secrets. Issues like homosexuality, adultery, infidelity, divorce, mental illness; crime such as rape or murder; physical or psychological abuse, child sexual abuse, incest; sexual violence such as marital rape or pregnancy from rape; human sexual behavior like premarital pregnancy or teenage pregnancy; substance abuse including alcoholism. More simple secrets may be personality conflicts, death, religion, academic performance and physical health problems. Any topic that a family member thinks may cause anxiety may become a family secret. Family members often see keeping the secrets as important to keeping the family working, but over time the secrets can increase the anxiety in the family. The confidentiality of family secrets revealed by a patient is a common ethical dilemma for counselors and therapists.

Family Secrets
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Family Secret (disambiguation).

A family secret can be defined as "events or information that members hide from each other or those outside the family." Family secrets can be shared by the whole family, by some family members or kept by an individual member of the family. Secrecy is most powerful in familial environments as individuals involved experience their most "primal sources" of joy and pain.

The secret can relate to taboo topics, rule violations or just conventional secrets. Issues like homosexuality, adultery, infidelity, divorce, mental illness; crime such as rape or murder; physical or psychological abuse, child sexual abuse, incest; sexual violence such as marital rape or pregnancy from rape; human sexual behavior like premarital pregnancy or teenage pregnancy; substance abuse including alcoholism. More simple secrets may be personality conflicts, death, religion, academic performance and physical health problems. Despite the negative implications and associations of holding a family secret, many believe that the act is beneficial and even a necessary function of maintaining familial and interpersonal relationships. The act of with-holding or differentially sharing information is also linked to the setting of boundaries and alliances which underscore the structures of relational systems.

History
- Has been studied from a psychological perspective as the individual serves as the unit of analysis.

- Secrets are very interpersonal in their nature and have been studied by relational and family scholars

Anecdotally, family secrets may be accepted as a form of preventing others from experiencing unnecessary pain or even maintain a family's reputation. The effects of keeping a family secret can have positive or negative impacts on individuals involved, a subject of much debate. karpel 2980 roman and blackburn 1979 wendorf and wendorf 1985.

According to the early work of Karpel, a typology of secrets emerges through the boundaries created in keeping and sharing family secrets. There are three major types under the classification:


 * 1) Individual Secrets: A type of secret that surfaces in occurrences where one person keeps a secret from another person or persons in the family. Some examples of these types of secrets may include a secret affair of one spouse that is kept from the other or even a daughter's struggle with substance abuse or addiction that is kept from a parent. These secrets create sub-groups within the family.
 * 2) Internal Family Secrets: A type of secret that involve cases where at least two people know of and keep a secret from at least one other person. For example, concealing a family member's true cause of death or long-standing grudges or conflicts between family members. These types of secrets strengthen boundaries that separate the family from the outside world.
 * 3) Shared Family Sectrets

Common Topics
Familial secrets tend to be concerned with facts as opposed to feelings or thoughts as encompassed under "real happenings or incidents."

These examples can often involve

Difficulties
Secrets have been defined in a variety of different ways, generally secrets involve information that is purposefully concealed from another person (Bok, 1989; Kelly 2002). The "hidden nature' of secrets has made them largely difficult to study.

Effects
Family secrets can affect the relationships within a family as familial relationships are shaped party by the information that is shared and what is held secret by members. Families who are more secretive with each other, carefully guard information about their beliefs or financial states, are likely to encourage different relationships among members who openly discuss these matters with those outside of the family.