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Identification of a syndrome in either the medical or the behavioral realm is a matter of great import, with both practical and theoretical consequences. An interpersonal syndrome identified by a traditionally trained psychoanalyst would be a major contribution. This book's title not only promises a syndrome, but the particular area of study has social significance and would likely draw a wide audience. If the work succeeds, both the public and the profession of psychoanalysis would gain. There is a risk, however. If science and scholarship do not support the assertion of discovery, the work may amount to little more than sensationalism.
This book by a Los Angeles training and supervising analyst has as its general topic extramarital affairs, and its ambition in part is to provide a window into related male-female issues and the nature of love. Richard Tuch's thesis is that the single woman–married man syndrome is specific and includes particular patterns of behavior, feelings, and attitudes not previously described in the literature. The syndrome has an incidence, a typology, and particular dynamic constellations. It is unlike most psychoanalytic syndromes in being essentially interpersonal; only folie à deux and sadomasochism are similar, in that they involve two persons with complementary intersubjective states. The key dynamic issue for both parties is interpersonal power and control.
Tuch provides a clear descriptive overview, and full-length chapters presenting his data from each of three different perspectives: the single woman's, the married man's, and the wife's. He then focuses on the issues of marital discord and extramarital affairs as significant social-psychological phenomena within which this syndrome resides. Tuch's concluding chapters are on gender, treatment implications, and the nature of man-woman love.
The author makes clear that any observations on the topics he addresses are culture-bound, and that monogamy is not the human norm. He is also assid