Family and Couples Therapy in a Time of War

SUMMARY

In this article the issue of professional responsibility of couples and family therapists is raised with regard to the war in the Persian Gulf. Implications are discussed for families and couples coping with the stress of war and its aftermath.     

Couples

The author summarizes some of the views of the founder of the Contextual Family Therapy approach, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, M.D., that lead to an integration of Object Relations Theories with the more recent Family Systems Theories. She then examines the relevance of some of the concepts decribed in Contextual Therapy for an understanding of the functioning of healthy couples.     

Dependency and Counter-Dependency in Couples

SUMMARY

There is a tendency on the part of many men in couples to deny their dependency needs, and for the women in these couples to view themselves as excessively needy. These uneven subjective perceptions are examined, as are the ways contemporary gender socialization interferes with the attainment of the ideal of mutual dependency in couples. Some implications for couples therapy are explored.     

《黄帝内经》时间医学思想对急性心肌梗死时间节律的解释

<黄帝内经>"天人相应"理论比较完备地奠定了中医关于人体生物节律知识的基础,强调人体自然节律与四季日月昼夜节律之间的密切关系.在急性心肌梗死发病呈现显著的时间节律特征,以中医时间学理论进行解释,充分掌握急性心肌梗死发病的规律性,指导高危人群合理作息,减少急性心梗的发生.     

Couples Therapy

The authors propose a more comprehensive definition of couples therapy since parenting and individual issues can impact so forcefully on spousal relationships. Couples therapy, is redefined as a therapy with both spouses concerning their individual, parenting, and marital functioning which is conducted in conjoint marital/family sessions and individual meetings with each spouse. A case example illustrates this approach which is called Comprehensive Family Therapy.     

Against Couples

ABSTRACT The essay attacks the convention that a person should at any period in their life have not more than one sexual partner. The issues of the care of children and the desirability of a shared household are here bracketed out. The main argument proceeds by seeing conflicts between the requirement of exclusivity in sexual life, authenticity, and the principle that sexual communion should be an expression of love. A general social inertia, defined by the possessive introversion of couples, means that individuals will inevitably sometimes have to choose between sexual solitude and cultivating a more or less artificial relationship. The ideal of a single, central relationship is criticised on the grounds that (i) in some respects it is not desirable and (ii) it is in any case unrealistic to suppose that we can choose to create such an ideal relationship at will.     

Decision-Making in Married and Unrelated Couples

The decision-making performance of 20 married and 20 synthetic couples, all college students, was compared using the Ferreira-Winter Questionnaire technique. Married couples showed (a) greater spontaneous agreement with each other prior to conjoint discussion, (b) less politeness, (c) more intrusive interruptions, and (d) a lesser exchange of explicit information between husband and wife. Although married couples arrived at more "democratic" or representative decisions in a faster time, this was due to their greater degree of prior shared values and interests. The effects of the history and context of the relationship between subjects upon their pattern of communication and possible contrasts between normal and abnormal couples are discussed.     

Sexuality and Intimacy in Couples Therapy

SUMMARY

In ages past, spiritual seekers left their close relationships for the seclusion of a monastery or a solitary journey, facing their dragons essentially alone. Today, however, many of us face the dragons within us as we undertake the tasks of differentiation and individuation. Thus, our relationships, if we allow them, can become the loci of our deepest self-exploration, leading to deepening intimacy with our partners.     

Measuring Empathy in Couples: Validity and Reliability of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Couples

Aboriginally probably equivalent, following divergent acculturative patterns, the perceptual and cognitive techniques of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches differed. Today, half of Apache children (the learners) adjust to ordinary expectations in grammar school: their Rorschach patterns resemble those of aged Chiricahuas; half (the nonlearners) fail to adjust: their responses are those of the less-acculturated Mescaleros:

It was hypothesized that the learners would have identified with the techniques of the more-acculturated Chiricahuas. Adults influential in the early lives of the children were tested. The hypothesis as stated was not verified. What was consistent in the responses of learner influentials was a more balanced approach to Rorschach stimuli than was shown by nonlearner influentials.     

Compensatory Conscientiousness and Health in Older Couples

ABSTRACT— The present study tested the effect of conscientiousness and neuroticism on health and physical limitations in a representative sample of older couples ( N = 2,203) drawn from the Health and Retirement Study. As in past research, conscientiousness predicted better health and physical functioning, whereas neuroticism predicted worse health and physical functioning. Unique to this study was the finding that conscientiousness demonstrated a compensatory effect, such that husbands' conscientiousness predicted wives' health outcomes above and beyond wives' own personality. The same pattern held true for wives' conscientiousness as a predictor of husbands' health outcomes. Furthermore, conscientiousness and neuroticism acted synergistically, such that people who scored high for both traits were healthier than others. Finally, we found that the combination of high conscientiousness and high neuroticism was also compensatory, such that the wives of men with this combination of personality traits reported better health than other women.     

Fostering Strength and Resiliency in Same-Sex Couples

Abstract

Same-sex couples are presented widiin tiieir cultural contexts to examine how those contexts might influence me strength and resilience of their relationships. We are particularly interested in the ability of the couple relationship to fulfill family functions that serve the social, psychological, and physical needs of each of the partners and society (Patterson, 2002a). Three family functions: family formation and membership, nurturance and socialization, and protection of vulnerable members, are particularly germane to same-sex couples. We examine several topic areas related to these three functions in order to assist clinicians in identifying factors that may prohibit same-sex couples from becoming and remaining strong and resilient.     

Downward Comparison in Infertile Couples

The tendency of infertile individuals to compare themselves favorably to others with regard to coping efficacy was examined among 61 women and 52 men, including 52 husband-wife pairs. Comparison targets were same-sex infertile others and the spouse. Eighty-three percent of men, but only 45% of women, believed that they were coping better than same-sex others (i.e.,downward comparison). Both men (51%) and women (47%) tended to see no difference between their own and their spouses' coping efficacy. However, comparing themselves to their spouses, men in general compared downward, whereas women compared upward. For both same-sex and spouse comparisons, husbands were significantly more likely to engage in downward comparison than their partners. Analyses testing the correlates of downward comparison revealed that (a) infertile participants who were more likely to engage in downward comparison felt less threatened by infertility, (b) no association emerged between comparison indices and self-esteem, and (c) downward same-sex comparison was more likely for men who had been attempting conception for a longer period.     

Rhythm and dominance

Subjects were tested by a short experimental procedure involving tapping of a rhythm with one limb with a simultaneous regular beat with another limb. Informal observations had suggested a rhythm dominance effect—that is was dramatically easier with some limb combinations. Notably it was easy when the right hand tapped the rhythm and the left hand the beat but almost impossible the other way round. Equally, both hands dominated both feet. Our tests revealed enormous individual differences, subjects separating neatly into three groups. Some people could not do the task at all, some could do it with any limb combination, the latter group including all the serious musicians tested. For the remainder the rhythm dominance effect was clear. However, the laterality effect was the same (right hand advantage) for a majority (60%) of left handers. We conclude, then, that this effect is linked to language dominance and not handedness. In addition it seems there is a task scheduler which imposes its own view in combining this laterality effect with the dominance of hands over feet.     

Treating Fused Couples

SUMMARY

Marital therapy with couples in which the partners are undifferentiated and highly fused entails attention to both individual and interpersonal dynamics. Individual structural problems such as insufficient sense of self, poor self-other differentiation, primitive defenses, and incomplete object constancy tend to co-occur with couples issues such as anxious attachment, possessiveness, jealousy, and patterns of reactivity and explosive fighting. A model for dealing with fusion in couples is presented that demonstrates how constructs and techniques of object relations theory serve to inform and to enhance the practice of Bowenian systems therapy.     

Cultural Considerations in Couples Therapy

This paper offers a framework for considering cultural influences in couples therapy. Emphasis is placed on the therapist's responsibility to engage in an ongoing self-assessment of personal biases, areas of inexperience, and privilege. With a focus on couples of ethnic minority cultures, suggestions are offered for establishing rapport, understanding values, and appreciating strengths.