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In September, 1975, Drs. Rudolf Ekstein, A. A. Mason, and Phyllis W. Meadow were invited to participate in a panel discussion on intimacy and marriage at the California Graduate Institute in Los Angeles. The following papers are condensed from the informal panel discussion. Dr. Mason stressed the theoretical position of Melanie Klein, while Dr. Ekstein alluded to the influence of Anna Freud and Erik Erikson. Dr. Meadow addressed herself to the modern psychoanalytic view of resistance to marital intimacy. All three participants related marital failure to unsuccessfully resolved object relations with mothering figures during the first years of life, when wishes and fears revolve around security, intimacy and autonomy. These are the conflicts they find repeated in the marital partnership. Differences were predominantly in the area of treatment.
The paper prepared by Dr. Hyman Spotnitz is from a lecture presented earlier and offers a theoretical understanding of the dynamics leading to success or failure in the marital partnership.
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