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Seldom has the relationship of marriage counseling to psychoanalysis been spelled out so clearly or so meaningfully as in this anthology Man and Wife is presented as a source-book of “family attitudes, sexual behavior and marriage counseling,” and these subjects are covered from the points of view of general information, theory and application.
The book excels in showing precisely how counseling differs from analysis and therapy, and it explains how such subjects as transference and identification can be schematized as part of the counseling relationship. The articles by M. Royden C. Astley are particularly meaningful in demonstrating how psychoanalytic concepts can be a part both of everyday life experience and of such practical applications as counseling. Religious, legal and sociological information is offered in comprehensive and clearly organized chapters.
Marriage counseling is defined as dealing primarily with a relationship between marital partners rather than with either individual separately. When this relationship is adjusted to the mutual satisfaction of both partners, or in a minority of cases satisfactorily dissolved, the goals of counseling are considered to have been achieved.
The chapter by A. Krich presents case material which illustrates the counseling relationship in its most helpful and professionally worthwhile aspects. Two partners, the parents of three teen-age children, come to treatment with a long history of marital maladjustment and complaint. The husband really does not want to come at all, and he is almost literally bludgeoned into attendance by his wife. Blatant problems of almost total subjugation, masochism and denial would seem to indicate a most guarded prognosis. Yet within only twelve interviews with each partner major changes have occurred in both people. A comprehensive, accepting and subtle handling of the transference has led to sexual satisfaction and overall marital happiness which had been absent for most of these people's li