Welcome to PEP Web! Viewing the full text of this document requires a subscription to PEP Web. If you are coming in from a university from a registered IP address or secure referral page you should not need to log in. Contact your university librarian in the event of problems. If you have a personal subscription on your own account or through a Society or Institute please put your username and password in the box below. Any difficulties should be reported to your group administrator. Username: Password: Can't remember your username and/or password? If you have forgotten your username and/or password please click here and log in to the PaDS database. Once there you need to fill in your email address (this must be the email address that PEP has on record for you) and click "Send." Your username and password will be sent to this email address within a few minutes. If this does not work for you please contact your group organizer. Athens user? Login here. Not already a subscriber? Order a subscription today.

(1985). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 33:248-249

Couples in Collusion: By Jürg Willi. New York: Aronson, 1982, 265 pp., $25.00.

Edward R. Shapiro, M.D.

In his treatment of married couples, Jürg Willi's clinical observation is that despite their presentations of irreconcilable differences, they manifest complementary behavioral phenomena derived from similar areas of unconsciousconflict. His book is an attempt to elaborate this observation.

Willi describes three dynamic principles for healthy partner relationships. First, in accord with Minuchin, he argues that there must be relatively firm but flexible boundaries between members of a couple, defining each individual, and around the dyad, defining the marital pair. Second, there must be a relative balance of self-esteem in the marriage. Finally, there must be available to each partner a flexible use of what he calls "progressive" and "regressive" responses to dynamic conflicts. This last idea is the key to understanding his notion of "collusion."

In pathological relationships, according to Willi, unconscious conflicts can be externalized, acted out, and rigidly stabilize

[This is a summary or excerpt from the full text of the book or article. The full text of the document is available to subscribers.]