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Marital Tensions: Clinical Studies Towards a Psychological Theory of Interaction

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Henry Dicks had summarized the trend in psychoanalytic couples therapy in the 1960's, in Great Britain, when at the Tavistock Institute of Marital Studies. Dicks utilized and applified psychodynamic theory in a reseach application to the two individual personalities in marriage that have a powerful unconscious affect on each other. Interweaving case focused research with the psychoanalytic thinking of Klein, Bion and Winnicott among others, Dicks offers a concise clinical picture of an unconscious two person psychology. He does this masterfully by describing many couple situations in which couples manifest a world of psychic representations that appear to hold the couple together but prevent growth and development. Very regressed to neurotic couples are described. Cultural forces are also analyzed in terms of legacies stemming from families of origin; Dick's reseasrch and clinical interviews provide many cases that illustrate the power that family backgrounds play in the relational world of the troubled couple. Since psychological backgrounds contribute to marital choice and poor emotional preparation for intimacy produces clashes between the couple, a psychoanalytic treatment is suggested that will yield access to the heavily defended world of each spouse. Personality theory is featured from a British Object Relations perspective that has use in today's couple practice. Graduate students, and practitioners with long experience with couples will benefit from a careful reading of Henry Dick's well written treatise on marital tensions. The concept of projective identification is illustrated from the standpoint of choice of partner and marital unconscious fit. Marital Tensions is a very good basic text for clinicians interested in the intimate lives of couples and the study and treatment of unconscious pathology.