Review of Couples on the Couch

Abstract

The challenge of working with couples from an analytic perspective is bridging the gap between the intrapsychic and the interpersonal. I first began my training in Family and Couples therapies in the 1980s. At that time, there were psychodynamic, psychoanalytic theories to understand individuals, and then there were various systems theories to explain how humans behaved in families or couples—and never the twain shall meet. So, it was a challenge to transcend the limitations of psychoanalytic theories (specifically using a one-person psychology) to understand how individuals behave in couples. This is because, across the ocean in Great Britain, the home of object relations theories, this divide between individual and couples work never occurred. Utilizing the defense of projective identification as a form of interpersonal communication, British theorists were able to transcend this schism. Further, in using projective identification and other object relation concepts, they were able to link unconscious conflicts to individual’s behavior in their most intimate relationships. In the United States, it was not until the emergence of two-person psychologies, that it became possible to bridge the gap between the intrapsychic and interpersonal. There was finally a theoretical foundation with which to conceptualize how individuals in relationships mutually influence each other. So though it may have taken time for this side of the Atlantic to catch up, there has since been a convergence of understanding and some overlapping assumptions about how individuals behave in their intimate partnerships. Couples of the Couch is a collection of essays addressing various challenges and phenomena inherent in working with couples. The