Psychodynamic Couple Therapy: A Practical Synthesis

Author: Arthur Nielsen

This essay reviews the most significant contributions of psychodynamic thought to the field of couple therapy. It distills the work of numerous clinicians and researchers who, though writing from diverse perspectives, share fundamental assumptions and concerns. Rather than emphasizing differences between schools of thought, this paper mines their best contributions in a discussion of five central therapeutic targets: underlying issues, divergent subjective experiences, transferences, projective identification, and acceptance. Two detailed cases illustrate the benefits and techniques for targeting these five therapeutic domains.

[bn]

It was helpful indeed. I’ve been specializing in children and adolescents psychoanalysis and often had to work with the parent couples’ dynamics. I’m facing a somewhat tense situation with a child patients parents now and am about to receive a couple for a first interview. Your paper is probably going to be quite helpful, thank you very much for sharing.