Table Of ContentBRIEF ENCOUNTERS
WITH COUPLES
SOME ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVES
E D I T ED BY
F R A N C IS G R I ER
TAVISTOCK MARITAL STUDIES INSTITUTE
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
WITH COUPLES
1
BRIEF ENCOUNTERS
WITH COUPLES
Some Analytic Perspectives
Edited by
Francis Crier
Foreword by
Stanley Ruszczynski
K A R N AC
LONDON NEW YORK
First published in 2001 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT
A subsidiary of Other Press LLC, New York
Arrangement and Introduction copyright © 2001 Francis Grier; Foreword
copyright © 2001 Stanley Ruszczynski; Chapter 1 copyright © 2001 Mary
Morgan; Chapter 2 copyright © 2001 Lynne Cudmore & Dorothy Judd;
Chapter 3 copyright © 2001 Lisa Miller; Chapter 4 copyright © 2001 Isca
Wittenberg; Chapter 5 copyright © 2001 Christopher Vincent; Chapter 6
copyright © 2001 Ruth Skrine; Chapter 7 copyright © 2001 Monica Lanman &
Francis Grier; Chapter 8 copyright © 2001 Judith Freedman
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CONTENTS
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
FOREWORD
Stanley Ruszczynski
Introduction
1 First contacts: the therapist's "couple state of mind
as a factor in the containment of couples
seen for consultations
Mary Morgan
2 Thoughts about the couple relationship
following the death of a child
Lynne Cudmore & Dorothy Judd
3 Brief encounters: work with parents and infants
in an under-fives' counselling service
Lisa Miller
Vi CONTENTS
4 Brief work with parents of infants
Isca Wittenberg 69
5 Giving advice during consultations:
unconscious enactment or thoughtful containment?
Christopher Vincent 85
6 Emotional contact and containment
in psychosexual medicine
Ruth Skrine 99
7 A psychoanalytic approach
to brief marital psychotherapy
Monica Lanman & Francis Grier 113
8 The court, the couple, and the consultant:
is there room for a third position?
Judith Freedman 135
REFERENCES 155
INDEX 161
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
Lynne Cudmore, originally qualified as a social worker and
worked for seven years in an inner city Social Services department.
She has worked at the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute since
1978, where she is a Senior Marital Psychotherapist and Lecturer in
Marital Studies and Organising Tutor for the Clinical Training. Her
research interests include the impact of infertility on the couple
relationship and the impact of child death on the parental partner
ship. She is a full member of the Society of Psychoanalytical Marital
Psychotherapists and is currently training to be a child psycho
therapist at the Tavistock Clinic.
Judith Freedman is Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at
the Portman Clinic. She is also a Member of the Boston Psycho
analytic Society. Dr Freedman has a long-standing interest in psy
choanalytically-informed work with couples and families, and in
recent years she has used this perspective to prepare reports for the
Family Courts.
Francis Grier is a psychoanalyst and a Senior Marital Psychothera
pist at the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute, where he is currently
vii
viii ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
working with Monica Lanman on a research project, exploring
measures of process and outcome in psychoanalytic marital psy
chotherapy.
Dorothy Judd, PhD, is a past member of staff of the Tavistock
Marital Studies Institute. After teaching art, she trained and
worked as an art therapist, and then as a child psychotherapist at
the Tavistock Clinic. While working for sixteen years in child guid
ance clinics and teaching hospitals, she specialized in working with
children facing life-threatening illness, and with their families and
medical staff. Most of her publications are on this subject, includ
ing Give Sorrow Words: Working with a Dying Child (1989), and a co
edited book, The Imaginative Body: Psychodynamic Therapy in Health
Care (1994), She currently teaches infant observation, works at Uni
versity College School, and has a private practice.
Monica Lanman first trained and worked as a social worker, then
qualified at the Tavistock Clinic as an individual psychoanalytic
psychotherapist. After some years of working privately, she took a
part-time post in student counselling. Since 1995, while maintain
ing a private individual practice, she has worked part-time at the
Tavistock Marital Studies Institute where she is a Senior Marital
Psychotherapist and Clinical Lecturer. She is the Co-ordinator of
TMSI's Clinical Service, and, with Francis Grier, is researching
measures of outcome and process in psychoanalytic marital psy
chotherapy.
Lisa Miller is a Consultant Child Psychotherapist and the Chair of
the Child & Family Department at the Tavistock Clinic. She is the
Senior Tutor in the Child Psychotherapy Training at the Clinic, and
was previously the Organiser of the Under Fives' Service there. She
is Editor of the International Journal of Infant Observation.
Mary Morgan is a Senior Marital Psychotherapist and Clinical
Lecturer at the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute where she has
worked for thirteen years. She is interested in the theory and tech
nique of couple psychotherapy and has set up trainings in couple
psychotherapy in Sweden and the United States. She has a private
practice and is currently training as a psychoanalyst.
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS *IX
Stanley Ruszczynski is a Principal Adult Psychotherapist at the
Portman Clinic (Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust) and has a
private practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. He is a Full
Member of the British Association of Psychotherapists and of the
Society of Psychoanalytic Marital Psychotherapists, and is past
Deputy Director of the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute. He is
the joint editor of the Journal of the British Association of Psychothera
pists. He has edited and co-edited four books and is the author of a
number of book chapters and journal papers on psychoanalytic
psychotherapy with individuals and with couples. He has taught
and lectured extensively.
Ruth Skrine is a retired general practitioner and has had a special
interest in psychosexual medicine for many years. She has been
Chairman of the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine, and has led
seminars which train doctors to work in a psychodynamic way
with the body and mind together. She has edited a series of books
on the subject, and is the author of one, Blocks and Freedoms in
Sexual Life (1997).
Christopher Vincent is a senior marital psychotherapist and clini
cal lecturer in marital studies at the Tavistock Marital Studies Insti
tute, where he coordinates the Institute's research and publications
activities. His clinical and research interests have focused on work
with individuals and couples who are separating or divorcing, and
he is currently part of a research team looking at the relationship
between attachment patterns and couples' conflict management
tactics. He is an Associate member of the British Association of
Psychotherapists and a Full Member of the Society of Psychoana
lytical Marital Psychotherapists.
Isca Wittenberg is a Consultant Psychotherapist. She was for
nearly 30 years on the staff of the Tavistock Clinic and is still an
honorary staff member and teaches at the Clinic. She is in private
practice, working with children and adults, and she teaches in
many countries. Among her publications are two books, Psychoana
lytic Insight and Relationships (1970) and The Emotional Experience of
Learning and Teaching (1983).
