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A model for describing and judging change in a couple relationship is set out, drawing on a follow-up method established at the Tavistock Clinic for the assessment of change in individual patients. We present the follow-up work done with the couple in the chronological order in which it occurred.
Our aim is to show how a psychodynamic formulation of a relationship can be made by using the concept of the shared unconscious phantasy as a factor which describes and justifies treating separate individuals as part of a single system. We suggest that such a framework provides an economic method of formulating a base from which to assess change.