A Couple State of Mind is a much anticipated book aimed at an international audience of practitioners, students and teachers of psychoanalytic couple therapy, describes the Tavistock Relationships model of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy, drawing on both historical and contemporary ideas, including the author’s own theoretical contributions. The book references contemporary influences of other psychoanalytic approaches to couples, particularly from an international perspective. It will be invaluable for all students learning about psychoanalytic work with couples for other psychoanalytic practitioners interested in this field.

This long awaited book aimed at an international audience of practitioners, students and teachers of psychoanalytic couples therapy will describe the TCCR model of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy drawing on both historical and contemporary ideas, including the author's own theoretical contributions. It will reference contemporary influences of other analytic approaches to couples, particularly from an international perspective. In Chapter 1, couple analytic theory is conceptualised incorporating unconscious determinants from the couple's pasts, the relationship in terms of psychic development, the difficulties in the present in being with an other, and the possibilities for the creative relating in the future. The aim of couples therapy is discussed linked to the internalisation of a couple state of mind. Chapters 2, 3, & 4 discuss the essential issues of assessment, engaging a couple in treatment and the specific couple therapy setting. Chapter 5 looks at a psychoanalytic understanding the couple relationship, expanding the theoretical ideas in chapter 1 in terms of clinical practice, for example the couples projective system, and the tension between narcissistic relating and creative coupling.Chapters 6 & 7 focus on technique e.g. transference, countertransference, interpretation and other couple interventions. Chapter 8 looks at what ending means in couples analytic therapy.The final chapter provides a glossary of terms for the developing terminology in the couple analytic field.

Brad Herzog, a disillusioned Generation X-er crosses America in a Winnebago to seek out the states of mind of Americans today. He turns a literal search for places on the map into a figurative examination of places of the heart. He reports on the state of towns and villages, presenting the small town as microcosm and the hamlet as allegory.

In this time of vulnerable marriages and partnerships, many couples seek help for their relationships. Psychoanalytic couple therapy is a growing application of psychoanalysis for which training is not usually offered in most psychoanalytic and analytic psychotherapy programs. This book is both an advanced text for therapists and a primer for new students of couple psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Its twenty-eight chapters cover the major ideas underlying the application of psychoanalysis to couple therapy, many clinical illustrations of cases and problems in various dimensions of the work. The international group of authors comes from the International Psychotherapy Institute based in Washington, DC, and the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR) in London. The result is a richly international perspective that nonetheless has theoretical and clinical coherence because of the shared vision of the authors.

Winner of the 2014 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship! A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy presents an original model of couples treatment integrating ideas from a host of authors in relational psychoanalysis. It also includes other psychoanalytic traditions as well as ideas from other social sciences. This book addresses a vacuum in contemporary psychoanalysis devoid of a comprehensively relational way to think about the practice of psychoanalytically oriented couples treatment. In this book,Philip Ringstrom sets out a theory of practice that is based on three broad themes: The actualization of self experience in an intimate relationship The partners' capacity for mutual recognition versus mutual negation The relationship having a mind of its own Based on these three themes, Ringstrom's model of treatment is articulated in six non-linear, non-hierarchical steps that wed theory with practice - each powerfully illustrated with case material. These steps initially address the therapist’s attunement to the partners' disparate subjectivities including the critical importance of each one's perspective on the "reality" they co-habit.Their perspectives are fleshed out through the exploration of their developmental histories with focus on factors of gender and culture and more. Out of this arises the examination of how conflictual pasts manifest in dissociated self-states, the illumination of which lends to the enrichment of self-actualization, the facilitation of mutual recognition, and the capacity to more genuinely renegotiate their relationship. The book concludes with a chapter that illustrates one couple treated through all six steps and a chapter on frequently asked questions ("FAQ's") derived from over thirty years of practice, teaching, supervision and presentations during the course of this books development. A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy balances a great range of ways to work with couples, while also providing the means to authentically negotiate their differences in a way which is insightful and invaluable. This book is for practitioners of couples therapy and psychoanalytic practitioners. It is also aimed at undergraduate, graduates, and postgraduate students in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, marriage and family therapy, and social work.

Introduction : core concepts of the Tavistock couple psychotherapy model / Shelley Nathans -- Couples on the couch : working psychoanalytically with couple relationships / Stanley Ruszczynski -- Discussion of "couples on the couch : working psychoanalytically with couple relationships" / Rachel Cooke -- Unconscious beliefs about being a couple / Mary Morgan -- Discussion of "unconscious beliefs about being a couple" : beliefs about a couple and beliefs about the other / Milton Schaefer -- The Macbeths in the consulting room / James V. Fisher -- Discussion of "the Macbeths in the consulting room" / Shelley Nathans -- Psychotic and depressive processes in couple functioning / Francis Grier -- Discussion of "psychotic and depressive processes in couple functioning" / Julie Friend -- Romantic bonds, binds and ruptures : couples on the brink / Virginia Goldner -- Discussion of "romantic bonds, binds and ruptures : couples on the brink" / Rachael Peltz -- How was it for you? Attachment, sexuality and mirroring in couple relationships / Christopher Clulow -- Discussion of "how was it for you? Attachment, mirroring, and the psychotherapeutic process with couples" / Leora Benioff -- Growing old together in mind and body / Andrew Balfour -- Discussion of "growing old together in mind and body" / Leslye Russell.