A variety of authors examine the inner workings of the physician's marriage -- the psychological issues and sources of conflict that emerge in the various stages of marriage and family. The authors include notable experts who share their years of clinical experience in helping physicians and their families learn new ways to improve communication, balance the demands of work and family, and grow and change together constructively.

This book gives an enlightening and compassionate look at the partners in a physician relationship, both as individuals and as a couple. Using illustrative case narratives and simple self-assessment tools, it helps readers common to physician families that can cause strain and tension in a marriage. Whether you are newly married or entering retirement after many years of marriage, "The Medical Marriage will teach you how to pinpoint the individual and interactive steps so that your best skills fuel--rather than damage--your marriage and family life.

This volume examines the secrets of the medical couples who manage to avoid or escape a bad marriage and addresses their intimate lives. What makes a good marriage when one or both spouses are physicians? Physicians experience stress, depression, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsiveness, and workaholism and commit suicide more often than the general population. In addition, the spouse of a physician can become trapped in a self-focused style of coping that ruins the marriage. Here, doctors and their spouses learn about the stages of the medical couple's journey; the issues that make money a source of stress in the medical marriage; eight type of medical marriages -- their strengths and weaknesses; nine characteristics of highly successful medical couples; the Intimacy Formula for a high-passion medical marriage; and six keys for negotiating differences without damaging the relationship.

In marriage, partners bring together preexisting psychological and cul tural histories which may be quite disparate. The idea that "love con quers all" does not account for the complexities involved in the development of a contemporary partnership. Societal changes over the past few decades have resulted in impor tant shifts in patterns of relationships. Lengthened life spans, decreased incidence and severity of illness and disability, and the availability of contraception have affected our lives and plans substantially. Among the effects are marriages that last longer than they ever have and produce fewer children, despite the high divorce rate. Values and expectations in marriage have also changed over the past several decades, shifting from an emphasis on survival and eco nomic security to a focus on companionship, love, and communication. The desire for self-fulfillment has superseded more traditional concerns about family loyalty Zlnd responsibility. Thus, divorce is often sought as a solution to frustration, disappointment, and conflict. A societal change that has had considerable influence on individ uals and their relationships has been the emergence of the women's movement and changing roles and expectations for women. This change has brought new demands, fulfillments, and conflicts. Current styles of marriage have shifted from an automatic acceptance of clearly designated gender-determined roles toward more egalitarian and interdependent relationships with partners also expressing their own goals, styles, and personalities. The dual career or dual worker family has emerged as the dominant family structure in the United States.

Responding to demographic changes among physicians and six years of new experiences since the first edition, Dr. Myers has revamped his well received work. He includes new information on older physicians, gay and lesbian physicians, medical student abuse, economic strain on interns, depression, malpractice, ethical violations, and other stressors which may cause marital difficulties. Therapists seeking to council symptomatic physicians, as well physicians themselves, will find this a humane, readable, and useful book.