A Couple State of Mind: Psychoanalysis of Couples and the Tavistock Relationships Model

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-715
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Sehon
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Kathy Sinsheimer

Separated families, where children resist or refuse visitation with one parent, present a complex treatment picture for clinicians. Application of psychoanalytic concepts can increase the clinician's understanding of the family members' response to the familial separation and inform the clinician's treatment decisions. The concepts of couple state of mind, projective gridlock, transgenerational transmission of trauma, and Nachträglichkeit, or après coup, are proposed as useful in appreciating the family members' individual and familial psychological responses to the trauma of parental separation. Multiple clinician functions necessary in the treatment of this complex family dynamic are explicated. A case example is included. Family state of mind is proposed as a newly named function for the clinician as well as the family members.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanni Mann-Shalvi ◽  
Caroline Sehon ◽  
Timothy Keogh

This article describes a contemporary approach to dealing with the encapsulation and dispersion of transgenerational trauma. It focuses on how such trauma, when undigested, can create barriers to intimacy in a couple. The lead author and couple therapist not only describes her clinical approach, but provides a theoretical framework from which to view this type of trauma and the way in which it can impact on a couple relationship. The second and third authors provide individual and shared commentaries aimed at highlighting the applicability of couple therapy to psychoanalytic work with individuals. The authors conclude that experience working with couples enriches individual psychoanalytic work as a result of the focus on the “couple state of mind” this work affords.


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