A closed system is one where energy is spent in trying to keep things from changing. In this kind of home environment, one or more members bent on maintaining the status quo, help keep the power structure off balance. Since communication often promotes change and change and threatens the status quo, closed family systems do things by unspoken agreement. Them that has the power keeps it. This arrangement allows dependence on alcohol, drugs, abuse or out of control sexual needs to flourish.
Closed systems prevent problem solving, personal growth and moving forward.
Individuals who grow up in closed systems do not get their early emotional and psychological needs met and often develop compulsive, dysfunctional behaviors as a result. One of the most debilitating attitudes emerging from such an environment is a kind of moral masochism, described by psychoanalyst Ester Meneker. Moral masochism is an insufficient separation from the parent due to fear or loss and abandonment. Described this way, moral masochism should be distinguished from sexual masochism which is an unconscious need for punishment. Moral masochism is an adaptive defense mechanism to over come the child's fear of abandonment.