First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Romantic relationships, especially good ones, are desired of almost all humans. However, what makes such relationships good and nourishing? For the most part, it is the support and intimacy that exists within the couple, and their ability to experience life and face difficulties together. This book is divided into two sections, one focusing on the couple and their intimate relationship, and the other on how that relationship influences their offspring. Part one examines whether sacrificing in an intimate relationship is always beneficial and whether it help strengthen the marital/couple unit? Attachment theory has had a significant influence on how we view relationships in childhood as well as in adulthood. The book sheds light on the mechanisms that mediate attachment style and the quality of the intimate relationships, exploring the relationship between one’s ability to express empathy and that person’s ability to offer social support to his/her partner. The second part of the book explores what young adults think about marriage, influenced by their parental relationship; how parental relationships affect children’s social experience in school; how parental approaches to children affect their sibling relationship; the parental role in childhood eating disturbances; and how the family climate affects children’s loneliness. All in all, the book affords a thorough review not only of what marital/couple intimacy is and what can affect it, but how significant it is in affecting their children, in and out of the house. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Psychology.

A collection of the papers of Margaret S. Mahler, providing an exposition of the development of Mahler's essential concepts.

Separation-Individuation Struggles in Adult life: Leaving Home focuses on the developmental task of separating from parents and siblings for individuals and couples who have not been able to resolve these issues earlier in life. Sarah Fels Usher extends Mahler’s theory, and includes the writing of Loewald and Modell, among others, stressing the right of adult patients to a separate life. She describes the predicament of Oedipal victors (or victims), their introjected feelings of responsibility for their parents, and their resultant inability to be truly individuated adults. Difficulties separating from siblings are also given analytic attention. Usher’s experience treating couples adds a new and powerful dimension to her theory. She is optimistic throughout about the therapist’s ability to help adult patients resolve the rapprochement sub-phase in a satisfying manner. An additional, crucial question is raised when the author asks if the therapist can allow the patient to terminate treatment. Has the therapist achieved separation from their own parents—or, indeed, from their analyst? Exploring the plight of patients of the unseparated analyst, Usher describes how these generational factors rear their unfortunate heads when it is time to end therapy. Listening to patients from the perspective of separation-individuation is not new; what is new is Usher’s emphasis on how these particular issues are often masked by significant achievement in adult professional life. Separation-Individuation Struggles in Adult Life: Leaving Home will be of great importance for psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists working with adults, as well as for clinical postgraduate students.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family and Couples Counseling is a new, all-encompassing, landmark work for researchers seeking to broaden their knowledge of this vast and diffuse field. Marriage and family counseling programs are established at institutions worldwide, yet there is no current work focused specifically on family therapy. While other works have discussed various methodologies, cases, niche aspects of the field and some broader views of counseling in general, this authoritative Encyclopedia provides readers with a fully comprehensive and accessible reference to aid in understanding the full scope and diversity of theories, approaches, and techniques and how they address various life events within the unique dynamics of families, couples, and related interpersonal relationships. Key topics include: Assessment Communication Coping Diversity Interventions and Techniques Life Events/Transitions Sexuality Work/Life Issues, and more Key features include: More than 500 signed articles written by key figures in the field span four comprehensive volumes Front matter includes a Reader’s Guide that groups related entries thematically Back matter includes a history of the development of the field, a Resource Guide to key associations, websites, and journals, a selected Bibliography of classic publications, and a detailed Index All entries conclude with Further Readings and Cross References to related entries to aid the reader in their research journey

In 28 chapters and extensive editorial commentary, this book explores the changing roles of fathers -- changes prompted partly by societal shifts and partly by changes in the family and in "traditional" parental roles. Among the topical studies con

For anyone who practices marriage and family therapy the author says they have one kind of client population that seems to be a modal or predominating type. For three decades he has experienced more marital situations where one of the couple wants “out” of the marriage and the other wants to “stay in” than any other type. The idea for this collection of first-person therapy methodologies developed after two successive national meetings of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), in New York (1985) and Orlando (1986). The cases that were discussed were characterized by the presence of alcoholism, and drug and other addictions, rather than presentations that dealt with a polarized couple wherein the marriage had simply become a devitalized, ho-hum relationship. This volume seeks to address the balance.