Table Of ContentPSYCHOTHERAPY
WITH COUPLES
PSYCHOTHERAPY
WITH COUPLES
Theory and Practice
at the Tavistock Institute
of Marital Studies
edited by
Stanley Ruszczy ns ki
Foreword by
David E. Scharff
London
KARNAC BOOKS
Chapter 3: lines from "Here on the cropped grass of the narrow ridge I stand" (1933) by W.H.
Auden; from The English Auden: Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927-1939, edited
by Edward Mendelson. Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber. Also from Collected
Poems by W.H. Auden. Copyright 1937 and renewed 1965 by W.H. Auden. Reprinted by
permission of Random House, Inc.
Chapter 9: lines from Cat f Eye by Margaret Attwood, copyright 1988 O.W.T oad Limited;
used by permission of the Canadian publishers, McClelland and Steward, Toronto, and by
permission of Bantam-Doubleday-Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Chapter 9: lines from A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Used by permission of Kings
College, Cambridge, and the Society of Authors as the literary representatives of the E.M.
Forster Estate.
Chapter 9: lines from The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively, published by William
Heinemann. Used by permission of Reed Book Services and by permission of Grove Press,
Inc.
Chapter 9: lines from Porky by Deborah Moggach. Published by Jonathan Cape. Used by
permission of Random Century Group and by permission of Curtis Brown Group Limited.
Copyright Deborah Moggach 1983.
Published in 1993 by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd.
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Second Impression 1994
Reprinted 2005
Copyright 8 1993 by the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Psychotherapy with Couples: Theory and
Practice at the Tavistock Institute of
Marital Studies
I. Ruszczynski, Stanley P.
616 .89
ISBN: 1 85575 045 7
I would like to express my thanks to Robert Young, editor and
publisher of Free Association Books, for his kind permission to
republish Enid Balint's article 'Unconscious Communications
Between Husband and Wife", which he is to include amongst
the collected papers of Enid Balint (Before I Was I: Psycho-
analysts and the Imagination, edited by Juliet Mitchell and
Michael Parsons. kee Association Books. 1993). I am also
grateful to Tavistock Publications for their kind permission to
republish Alison Lyons' article, "Therapeutlc Interventions in
Relation to the Institution of Marriagew,w hich had previously
been published in Support, Innovation and Autonomy: Tavistock
Clfnlc Golden Jubilee Papers (1973). edited by Dr Robert Gos-
ling, for whose generous permission I am also grateful.
I am indebted to Margaret Wilkinson, friend and colleague
of the late Alison Lyons, who gave me access to all her unpub-
lished papers, amongst which I found Alison Lyons' article,
'Husbands and Wives: The Mysterious Choice". Sincere thanks
are due to Evelyn Cleavely and Janet Mattinson, who made
Ume in their busy post-retirement schedules to revise their
papers which had previously been presented as lectures. I also
~i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
give thanks to my current colleagues, Warren Colman and
James Fisher, who very generously revised lectures, in the
former case, and completed a previously unfinished paper, in
the latter, in response to my request to them to do so. Further
thanks is also due to Warren Colman for his assistance in
checking the references relating to the writings of Jung and his
followers: and also for reading and commenting on the Intro-
ductory comments preceding parts two, three, and four of this
book. Affectionate thanks are due to Douglas Woodhouse, past
Chairman of the TIMS. Hls knowledge of the history, tradition,
and philosophy of the Institute was carefully and generously
shared with me in relation to chapter one and was much appre-
ciated. Isabel Menzies Lyth offered some detailed historical
comments, for which I am also very grateful.
More broadly, I am grateful to all the writers, and the whole
TIMS staff group, who have waited patiently whilst I have
laboured towards the completion of thls book. Much thanks
is due to Claire Davis, who patlently and skilfully typed vari-
ous drafts and revisions of the contents of this book into the
word processor. Particular gratitude and affection are due to
Margaret Spooner. TIMS Administrator, whose increasingly
vocal support and encouragement has been of enormous help.
Finally, both personally and on behalf of TIMS, I would like
to express my sincere gratitude to Cesare Sacerdoti of Karnac
Books, whose early interest and encouragement, subsequent
advice and suggestions, and, more recently, generous patience,
has made this volume possible. The highly skilled and efficient
editing by Klara Klng made the final stages of the preparation of
this book much less arduous than they might otherwise have
been.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FOREWORD
David E. Scharg
PREFACE
PART ONE
The institutional context
1 The theory and practice
of the Tavlstock Institute of Marltal Studies
Stanley Ruszczynski
PART TWO
The unconaciour contract
in the couple relationship
2 Unconscious communications
between husband and wife
mfd Baht
3 Husbands and wives: the mysterious choice
Alison Lyons 44
vii
viii CONTENTS
4 Relationships:
interaction, defences, and transformation
Evelyn Cleauely
5 Marriage as a psychological container
Warren Colman
PAKC THREE
The couple and the individual
Introduc tion
6 Individuation in marriage
Alison Lyons and Janet Mattinson
7 The individual and the couple
Wmen Colman
8 The impenetrable other: ambivalence
and the Oedipal conflict in work with couples
James Msher
9 Betrayal of troth
Janet Mattinson
PART FOUR
A therapeutic approach
to the couple relationmhip
Introduction
10 Therapeutic intervention
in relation to the institution of marriage
Alison Lyons
11 Thinking about and working with couples
Stanley Ruszczynski
REFERENCES
INDEX
All the contributors are past or present senior members of staff
of the Tavistock Institute of Marital Studies VIMS) and have
participated in the clinical, teaching, and research activities of
the Institute.
Enid Bdht Founder member of the TIMS in 1948 (at which
time it was called the Family Discussion Bureau). Staff
member and Consultant to present. Training Analyst, Brit-
ish Psychoanalytical Society.
Evelyn Ckauely Staff member from 1974 to 1989. having
taken early retirement. Associate member of staff from
1989 to present. Organizational Consultant.
Warren Colman Staff member from 1982 to present. Associate
Professional Member, Society of Analytical Psychology.
James FLsher Staff member from 1989 to present. Associate
Member. British Association of Psychotherapists.
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