Triangulation

A history of the term "triangulation", now strongly accompanied with the word "narcissism".

Murray Bowen

Murray Bowen was a psychiatrist who developed Bowen Family Systems Theory in the 1950s-1970s, and with it triangulation. "Family Therapy in Clinical Practice" (1978).

He saw triangulation as when a two-person system under stress pulls in a third party to reduce anxiety. It can be healthy (e.g., bringing in a therapist to mediate) or unhealthy (manipulative). The lower one's differentiation (maturity), the higher the tendency toward triangulation.

It occurs naturally when anxiety rises in a two-person relationship (dyad).

Jay Hayley

Jay Haley introduced "The Perverse Triangle" in 1967 and further defined it in his 1977 work, "Toward a Theory of Pathological Systems". His example was a parent and child forming a coalition against the third person (the other parent). The existence of the coalition is denied by both.

Salvador Minuchin

Described a similar system to Jay Hayley, naming it the "Rigid Triad".

Karen L. Franck & Cheryl Buehler

The "Destabilizing Triangulation" was published in Journal of Family Psychology.

They studied triangulation effects on children and adolescents and found that triangulated youth experience increased anxiety, self-blame, torn between parents.

Triangulation in humour

Plato's Superiority Theory

In Philebus, Plato viewed laughter as rooted in malice, arising when we feel superior to others' misfortunes or ignorance. The triangulation involves the laugher, the object of ridicule, and the social standard against which the target falls short.

Aristotle

In Poetics and Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle softened Plato's theory and suggesting comedy represents people as worse than average but without causing pain. The triangle involves the comedian, the audience, and the degraded representation of humanity.

Thomas Hobbes' Superiority Variant

In Leviathan (1651) and Human Nature (1650), Hobbes described laughter as "sudden glory" arising from perceiving our superiority over others or our former selves.

The triangulation involves the self, the inferior other, and the comparative judgement between them.

Freud's Relief Theory

In Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905), Freud proposed jokes allow release of psychic energy. The triangular structure is explicit: the joke-teller, the listener, and the absent target.