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Psychotherapy with one marital partner is less successful than conjoint therapy (LEDERER & JACKSON 30; GURMAN & KNISKERN 14), contraindicating ‘… the use of individual therapy for marital problems, because of both the low improvement rates and high deterioration rates’ (LEVANT 31, p. 196, our italics). A valid perspective, such as systems theory, is essential to understand transactions during marriage and divorce (LEVITIN 32; BEAL 2) while intrapsychic factors must also be considered (BARNETT 1; BERMAN & LIEF 4; JUNG 22). However, to include both intrapsychic and interpersonal structures within a single theoretical framework introduces the dangers of mixing models (EPSTEIN & BISHOP 10). ‘Eclecticism’ lacks an integrated theory and may condone an ad hoc admixture of psychotherapeutic strategies which, unamenable to outcome evaluation, is possibly injurious to patients (BERMAN 3). However, Skynner (49) presents an integrative approach, derived from the positions of Freud and Klein, together with systems theory, permitting the contextualisation of intrapsychic dynamics and the family system within one model.
The present paper argues that analytical psychology can account uniquely for both intrapsychic and interpersonal paradigms, since the ‘collective unconscious’ implies an inherent intrapsychic system which interfaces with primary social networks. Jung anticipated the need for such a development: ‘… a neurosis is more a psychosocial phenomenon … It forces us to … look upon the neurotic person as a sick system of social relationships’ (JUNG 23, p. 24, our italics.) Indeed, Jung was clear concerning the influence of the family, even during his ‘experimental period’:
Hidden conflicts between the parents … produce in the child an emotional state … At puberty … he goes out into life with, more or less, the same kind of compromise-adaptations as those of his parents … here as a rule one can see
Page 253how powerful is the influence of the family constellation (JUNG 17,