Table Of ContentCouples, Trauma,
and Catastrophes
Couples, Trauma, and Catastrophes has been co-published
simultaneously as Journal of Couples Therapy, Volume 7, Num
ber 4 1998.
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Couples, Trauma,
and Catastrophes
Barbara Jo Brothers
Editor
Couples, Trauma, and Catastrophes has been co-published simulta
neously as Journal of Couples Therapy, Volume 7, Number 4 1998.
|J Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
New York London
Couples, Trauma, and Catastrophes has been co-published simulta
neously as Journal of Couples Therapy, Volume 7, Number 4 1998.
© 1998 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or
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First published 1998 by
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This edition published 2013 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Couples, trauma, and catastrophes/Barbara Jo Brothers, editor,
p. cm.
“Has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of couples therapy, Volume 7, Number
4, 1998.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7890-0532-8 (alk. paper).-ISBN 0-7890-0546-8 (alk. paper)
1. Marital psychotherapy. 2. Psychic trauma. 3. Life change events. 4. Crisis intervention
(Psychiatry) I. Brothers. Barbara Jo, 1940-. II. Journal of couples therapy.
RC488.5.C647 1998
616.89' 156-dc21 98-35597
CIP
Couples, Trauma, and Catastrophes
CONTENTS
Ways of Viewing the World: “ ... Living Our Lives
by Somebody Else’s Pattern ...” 1
Virginia Satir
The Art of Working with Traumatized Couples 5
Jim Lantz
Andy Stuck
Couples and Catastrophe: Dealing with the Death of a Child
Through Intimacy Therapy 19
Marcia K. Wiinamaki
David L. Ferguson
The Impact of Parental Abduction on the Couple 37
Geoffrey L. Greif
Elective Pediatric Amputation: Couples at a Crossroads 47
Patrick J. Morrissette
Debra Morrissette
Michelle Naden
Intimacy in the Face of Catastrophic Illness 63
Penny Cupp
The Negative Impact of Survivor Guilt on Marriage 69
Richard Vogel
“I Sleep, But My Heart Stirs, Restless, and Dreams ..
The Mythology of Russian Jewish Immigrant
Couples in Israel
Kris Jeter
Rita N. Gerasimova
Index
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Barbara Jo Brothers, MSW, BCD, a Diplomate in Clinical Social
Work, National Association of Social Workers, is in private practice in
New Orleans. She received her BA from the University of Texas and
her MSW from Tulanc University, where she is currently on the facul
ty. She was Editor of The Newsletter of the American Academy of
Psychotherapists from 1976 to 1985, and was Associate Editor of
Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy from 1979 to 1989.
She has 30 years of experience, in both the public and private sectors,
helping people to form skills that will enable them to connect emo
tionally. The author of numerous articles and book chapters on au
thenticity in human relating, she has advocated healthy, congruent
communication that builds intimacy as opposed to destructive, incon-
gruent communication which blocks intimacy. In addition to her
many years of direct work with couples and families, Ms. Brothers
has led numerous workshops on teaching communication in families
and has also played an integral role in the development of training pro
grams in family therapy for mental health workers throughout the
Louisiana state mental health system. She is a board member of the
Institute for International Connections, a non-profit organization for
cross-cultural professional development focused on training and
cross-cultural exchange with psychotherapists in Russia, republics
once part of what used to be the Soviet Union, and other Eastern Euro
pean countries.
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Ways of Viewing the World:
.. Living Our Lives
by Somebody Else’s Pattern . . . ”
Virginia Satir
EDITOR’S NOTE. The following excerpt was taken from Virginia Sa-
tir’s lecture in 1983 which she titled “Ways of Perceiving the World,” one
of a series of lectures: Avanta Process Community Meeting III, Crested
Butte, Colorado, August 1983. It must be understood that this edited
transcription is taken out of context. The lecture was delivered during a
thirty day seminar and was part of preparation for training therapists in the
Satir Model. Exercises and demonstrations before and after the lectures
were part of the training experience.
In this lecture, Virginia is giving one of her key insights: destructive
behavior is a person’s attempt to deal with the fear of inadequacy, failure,
and not measuring up in the eyes of others. She begins by pointing out that
children learn to define themselves through the eyes of their parents, going
on to use the metaphor of the Procrustean Bed as a graphic illustration of
the damage people do to themselves in trying to substitute another per
son’s picture for their own identity.
Printed with permission of John Banmen, Delta Psychological Associates,
Inc., 11213 Canyon Crescent, Delta, B.C., Canada V41 2R6. All copyrights
reserved.
This lecture transcript is part of a series that appears in past and subsequent
issues of the Journal of Couples Therapy.
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Ways of Viewing the World:. Living Our Lives by Somebody
Else’s Pattern . . . Satir, Virginia. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Couples Therapy (The
Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 7, No. 4, 1998, pp. I -4; and: Couples, Trauma, and Catastrophes (ed: Barbara
Jo Brothers) The Haworth Press, Inc., 1998, pp. 1-4.
