About family roles
In families organised around dysfunction, children unconsciously adapt into predictable survival roles. These roles distribute the family's emotional weight — each child carrying a different piece of what the system cannot hold as a whole. They persist into adulthood like old operating systems running silently beneath personality.
Read through each role below. You may recognise yourself strongly in one, or find pieces of several. Both are valid. The roles overlap — and sometimes shift depending on what the family needed at different stages.