Philip A. Ringstrom - A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy

A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy presents an original model of couples treatment, integrating ideas from a host of authors in relational psychoanalysis. It also includes other psychoanalytic traditions as well as ideas from other social sciences. This book addresses a vacuum in contemporary psychoanalysis devoid of a comprehensively relational way to think about the practice of psychoanalytically oriented couples treatment.

In this book, Philip Ringstrom sets out a theory of practice that is based on three broad themes:

the actualization of self-experience in an intimate relationship

the partners capacity for mutual recognition versus mutual negation

the relationship having a mind of its own.

Based on these three themes, Ringstroms model of treatment is articulated in six nonlinear, non-hierarchical steps that wed theory with practiceeach powerfully illustrated with case material. These steps initially address the therapists attunement to the partners disparate subjectivities, including the critical importance of each ones perspective on the reality they co-habit. Their perspectives are fleshed out through the exploration of their developmental histories with focus on factors of gender and culture and more. Out of this arises the examination of how conflictual pasts manifest in dissociated self-states, the illumination of which lends to the enrichment of self-actualization, the facilitation of mutual recognition, and the capacity to more genuinely renegotiate their relationship. The book concludes with a chapter that illustrates one couple treated through all six steps and a chapter on frequently asked questions (FAQs) derived from over 30 years of practice, teaching, supervision, and presentations during the course of this books development.

A Relational Psychoanalytic Approach to Couples Psychotherapy balances a great range of ways to work with couples, while also providing the means to authentically negotiate their differences in a way which is insightful and invaluable. This book is for practitioners of couples therapy and psychoanalytic practitioners. It is also aimed at undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, marriage and family therapy, and social work.

Philip A. Ringstrom, PhD, PsyD, is a Senior Training and Supervising Analyst and faculty member at the Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. He is a member of the editorial boards of both the International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and Psychoanalytic Dialogues. He is also a member of the International Council of Self Psychologists, and on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.

Relational Perspectives Book Series
Lewis Aron & Adrienne Harris
Series Co-Editors

Steven Kuchuck & Eyal Rozmarin
Associate Editors

The Relational Perspectives Book Series (RPBS) publishes books that grow out of or contribute to the relational tradition in contemporary psychoanalysis. The term relational psychoanalysis was first used by Greenberg and Mitchell ( 1983 ) to bridge the traditions of interpersonal relations, as developed within interpersonal psychoanalysis and object relations, as developed within contemporary British theory. But, under the seminal work of the late Stephen Mitchell, the term relational psychoanalysis grew and began to accrue to itself many other influences and developments. Various tributariesinterpersonal psychoanalysis, object relations theory, self psychology, empirical infancy research, and elements of contemporary Freudian and Kleinian thoughtflow into this tradition, which understands relational configurations between self and others, both real and fantasied, as the primary subject of psychoanalytic investigation.

We refer to the relational tradition, rather than to a relational school, to highlight that we are identifying a trend, a tendency within contemporary psychoanalysis, not a more formally organized or coherent school or system of beliefs. Our use of the term relational signifies a dimension of theory and practice that has become salient across the wide spectrum of contemporary psychoanalysis. Now under the editorial supervision of Lewis Aron and Adrienne Harris, with the assistance of Associate Editors Steven Kuchuck and Eyal Rozmarin, the Relational Perspectives Book Series originated in 1990 under the editorial eye of the late Stephen A. Mitchell. Mitchell was the most prolific and influential of the originators of the relational tradition. He was committed to dialogue among psychoanalysts and he abhorred the authoritarianism that dictated adherence to a rigid set of beliefs or technical restrictions. He championed open discussion, comparative and integrative approaches, and he promoted new voices across the generations.

Included in the Relational Perspectives Book Series are authors and works that come from within the relational tradition, extend and develop the tradition, as well as works that critique relational approaches or compare and contrast it with alternative points of view. The series includes our most distinguished senior psychoanalysts along with younger contributors who bring fresh vision.

Vol . 1
CONVERSING WITH UNCERTAINTY
Practicing psychotherapy in a hospital setting
Rita Wiley McCleary

Vol. 2
AFFECT IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
A clinical synthesis
Charles Spezzano

Vol. 3
THE ANALYST IN THE INNER CITY
Race, class, and culture through a psychoanalytic lens
Neil Altman

Vol. 4
A MEETING OF MINDS
Mutuality in psychoanalysis
Lewis Aron

Vol. 5
HOLDING AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
A relational perspective
Joyce A. Slochower

Vol. 6
THE THERAPIST AS A PERSON
Life crises, life choices, life experiences, and their effects on treatment
Barbara Gerson (ed.)

Vol. 7
SOUL ON THE COUCH
Spirituality, religion, and morality in contemporary psychoanalysis
Charles Spezzano & Gerald J. Gargiulo (eds.)

Vol. 8
UNFORMULATED EXPERIENCE
From dissociation to imagination in psychoanalysis
Donnel B. Stern

Vol. 9
INFLUENCE AND AUTONOMY IN PSYCHOANALYSIS
Stephen A. Mitchell

Vol. 10
FAIRBAIRN, THEN AND NOW
Neil J. Skolnick & David E. Scharff (eds.)

Vol. 11
BUILDING BRIDGES
Negotiation of paradox in psychoanalysis
Stuart A. Pizer

Vol. 12
RELATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE BODY
Lewis Aron & Frances Sommer Anderson (eds.)

Vol. 13
SEDUCTION, SURRENDER, AND TRANSFORMATION
Emotional engagement in the analytic process Karen Maroda

Vol. 14
RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS
The emergence of a tradition
Stephen A. Mitchell & Lewis Aron (eds.)

Vol. 15
THE COLLAPSE OF THE SELF AND ITS THERAPEUTIC RESTORATION
Rochelle G. K. Kainer

Vol. 16
PSYCHOANALYTIC PARTICIPATION
Action, interaction, and integration
Kenneth A. Frank

Vol. 17
THE REPRODUCTION OF EVIL
A clinical and cultural perspective
Sue Grand

Vol. 18
OBJECTS OF HOPE
Exploring possibility and limit in psychoanalysis
Steven H. Cooper

Vol. 19
WHO IS THE DREAMER, WHO DREAMS THE DREAM?
A study of psychic presences
James S. Grotstein

Vol. 20
RELATIONALITY
From attachment to intersubjectivity