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To the Editors: As editors of The Psychoanalytic Forum, you have earned the respect of many of your colleagues for your open-minded eclecticism in the choice of papers and discussants. Dr. Giovacchini's paper, “Characterological Aspects of Marital Interaction” [The Psychoanalytic Forum, Vol. 2, No. 1], and the discussions of it were especially interesting to me. Psychiatrists and others, whether working with individuals, marital partners or family groups, have much to learn from all of the conceptual systems which attempt to organize our understanding of human behavior, for truth has many facets.
I agree with Dr. Sager's ethical position that it is our responsibility to consider the effect of our therapy with the identified patient on other members of his family. Dr. Victor W. Eisenstein forcefully called this to our attention in 1956 with the publication of his Neurotic Interaction in Marriage. My experience over the past five years with over 200 marital pairs amply confirms Dr. Andrew S. Watson's impressions concerning the wide applicability, enhanced therapeutic leverage, speed, efficiency and economy of conjoint marital psychotherapy. (“The Conjoint Psychotherapy of Marriage Partners,” Amer. J. of Orthopsychiat., Vol. 33, No. 5).
Thus, I have arrived at the following position: In every case of a married person presenting himself for psychotherapy, whether or not a significant relationship problem seems to be present, I explore the possibility and usually recommend a trial of conjoint psychotherapy.
The readiness of spouses to participate in therapy has been amazing. Only 2-3% have refused. It would appear that our patients and their spouses arrived at the awareness of a need to work out their mutual problems together sometime before we were ready to offer them such an opportunity.
R. V. Fitzgerald, M.D.
Toledo, Ohio