genogram·McGoldrick 2020·education·complexity 3/3·since v0.1.0
The Potter family
Three-generation Potter family genogram with emotional relationship lines — cutoff, hostile, and close — illustrating McGoldrick relational notation.
For the family therapist
genogram·§ McGoldrick
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UTF-8 · LF · 17 lines · 518 chars✓ parsed·1.8 ms·15.4 KB SVG
Scenario
A teaching example for social work students learning genogram notation. The Potter family is fictional but emotionally rich — death years, a marriage date, cross-family emotional relationships, and three distinct relational patterns (cutoff, hostile, close) all in one diagram.
Annotation key
[male/female, birth_year, death_year, deceased]— person with death marker"m. 1978"— marriage date label on the union lineindex— marks Harry as the identified patient (proband)-cutoff-— estrangement; drawn as two parallel bars across the relationship line-hostile-— conflict; drawn as zigzag line-close-— enmeshment/closeness; drawn as double parallel line
How to read
Read each indented block as a family unit. James and Lily (index generation) both died in 1981. Harry's emotional world is defined by three relational lines: cutoff from Aunt Petunia, hostility toward cousin Dudley, and closeness to his deceased mother.