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The elegant Barbara Hepworth sculpture that adorns the cover of Mary Morgan's book on psychoanalytic couple therapy could be said to incorporate much of the book's character. Three rings, each interlinked with the other, create a compelling three-dimensional form that draws one in. Who, or what, do these forms represent? The couple and the therapist perhaps? Or, as the book's title suggests, the couple
and the ‘couple state of mind’? From the outset, Morgan helpfully emphasizes that, through the use of all the usual psychoanalytic tools we have at our disposal, the aim of treatment is to enable a couple to develop a capacity not only to reflect upon themselves within the relationship, but crucially to reflect upon the relationship as an entity in its own right.
The book is a distillation of the experience that Mary Morgan has gained from her extensive work at Tavistock Relationships (previously known as The Tavistock Institute of Marital Studies), an institution that has been in existence for seven decades. One gets the sense that it is a true labour of love, an attempt to bring together the collective thinking of a wide group of prominent clinicians in the field such as Stanley Ruszczynski, Francis Grier and James Fisher. It is of significant advantage that the book is written by one author. Not only does this provide a consistency of style that comfortably guides the reader through the various themes of the book, but echoes of previous chapters are developed within subsequent chapters, helping the reader to build upon what has already been learned.
Through the use of chapter titles such as, ‘Assessment’, ‘Engaging a couple in treatment’ and ‘Endings and the aim of couple therapy’, the book is structured in a way that enables the reader to feel assured that they will be guided through the various stages of treatment in an organised manner. However, it would be misleading to state that the book exists solely as a ‘how to’ guide to psychoanalytic couple work. Rather,