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Anyone who has tried to write for the lay reader knows the problems which beset Dr. Saul in writing a book '… first, for the married', and then '… for the single, who plan to marry one day'. The temptation to oversimplify struggles with the urge to dip into the 'gobbledegook' of psychoanalytic concepts and terminology and sometimes both the author and the reader are the losers.
Dr. Saul presents a wealth of interesting case material growing out of his extensive experience in private practice and in teaching. He attempts to spotlight and highlight the common marital problems encountered by couples who fail to attain the joys and fulfilments of which they dreamed in their courting days. The dialogue between the psychiatrist and the troubled spouse, or the couple, is given in illuminating snatches, and the general technique of the marital therapy applied is clearly presented. There is a discussion of the nature of marriage, common problems in marriage and their causes, sex outside marriage, repetition in marriage of childhood patterns, some hazards of marriage and their prevention, and some rapid resolutions, in respective sections of the book. The writing is clear and interesting.
Sometimes the case seems too glib, to the professional at least, the dynamics too 'assembly-line', the methodology too 'pat'. There is a certain sameness about the Arthurs and Amys, the Johns and Janes, the Mels and Madeleines, as they file through the book's pages, and also about the causes of their difficulty, which so often lie in what happened to them in their early years 'from 0 to 6' as revealed so infallibly in the patients' 'very first memory'. The urge to popularize entails the sacrifice of depth and authenticity, and this reviewer questions whether even Dr. Saul can really make this sacrifice and still give his readers the help he promises.
The author repeats an old error in regard to the statistics of marriage and divorce, namely, that 'close to a third of all marriages end in