Mourning Becomes Electra: Aile Sistemlerinde Sistemik Dolaşıklık Olgusu

The present article aims to discuss the phenomenon of systemic entanglement in the Mannon family in Eugene O’Neill's famous trilogy, Mourning Becomes Electra. It also argues that this trilogy can be read as a pioneering work for the recently popularized theory of “family constellations” by Bert Hellinger, a German psychologist. According to this theory, some unresolved conflicts or events in the past may cause some unconscious entanglements to move in loops and induce intergenerational suffering. In other words, it argues that ancestral curses and/or sins can be inheritable. If not resolved, they can inflict similar sufferings on the lives of the future members of the family. This theory has been snubbed and labelled as pseudoscientific by the rationalist science. However, having little or no definitive explanation on rational scientific grounds does not mean we can breeze past a perennial phenomenon that manifests in different contexts from Ancient Greece to today’s world. O’Neill takes off from this phenomenon in Mourning Becomes Electra, a re-interpretation of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, considering the dynamics of his contemporary America. He argues whether systemic entanglement in unhealthy family systems may inflict repetitive suffering on future generations. This trilogy may be read with an exploratory eye to lift the veil on this mystical functioning of systemic entanglement in the family context.