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Reading this book on marriage by Victor Eisenstein (Editor) and his many friends makes one feel like unpacking the well-wrapped Christmas present given by a person known for good taste. Expectation, hope, and watchful caution guide the unpacking, the tension mounts, and the final sight of the present is still surprisingly delightful. Marriage—its structure, psychodynamics, pathology, and treatment—badly needed psychoanalytic attention and description, and found it in this book.
Nolan D. C. Lewis wrote the foreword; Victor Eisenstein the introduction, stating the thesis: Course and outcome of a marriage are determined not merely by the personality difficulties of each partner but by the way the two personalities interact. The widening clinical extension of psychoanalysis and the psychiatrist's greater role as consultant in casework agencies have provided an abundance of data based not only on observations of the individual, but of both partners in a marriage, and often of their children as well. This development has led to the concept of family diagnosis and treatment.
The cultural perspective is given by Ashley Montagu in refreshing brevity. The basic relationship between psychoanalysis and marriage, their practical and theoretical issues, are outlined with great clarity by Lawrence Kubie. His conclusion: One of the fundamental challenges confronting us today is to discover how human beings, young and old, can be taught to distinguish between their conscious and attainable goals and needs on the one hand, and