Couple Psychoanalysis and Couple Therapy: Context and Challenge

Couple and family psychoanalysis are disciplines in search of definition. This paper offers a definition of couple psychoanalysis and considers its relationship to couple therapy. It reflects on Oedipal dimensions of the couple therapist's role, and explores contextual aspects of four clinical challenges intrinsic to that role: (1) looking in and looking out; (2) relating to sex and gender; (3) engaging with difference; (4) conserving and changing. The paper concludes with the assertion that three is a community, not a crowd, and that couple therapy, like couple psychoanalysis, is about building communities.