Common Complaints in Couple Therapy: New Approaches to Treating Marital Conflict [Hardcover]

Marriage and couple therapists see clients with broken relationships and bonds all the time; those who were once madly in love can grow indifferent, people change, and couples go into sessions feeling depressed, traumatized, and sometimes abused by their partners. Joan Lachkar examines the vicissitudes of love relations by taking into account aspects of aggression, cruelty, sadism, envy, and other primitive defenses lurking in the shadows of love and intimacy. Each chapter revolves around a specific situational conflict, with guidelines and treatment suggestions offered to the therapist. Numerous vignettes and detailed descriptions of theoretical technique, methodology, and diagnostic distinctions are included throughout the book to help readers see theory in action. The theoretical concepts drawn on include psychoanalysis, object relations, self-psychology, attachment theory, DBT, mindfulness, and others, with a heavy emphasis on listening and non-verbal and verbal communication throughout.1. Complaints and the Art of Listening 2. The Psychodynamics of Complaints: Theoretical Contributions 3. It Takes One to Tango 4. Promises, Promises 5. The Robotic Relationship 6. The Self-Saboteurs 7. A Life of Lies 8. When East Meets West 9. Taking Complaints to the Professional Level 10. Treatment Suggestions and Techniques 11. Closing ThoughtsMarriage and couple therapists can read about specific, situational conflicts in this book and learn guidelines and treatment suggestions offered for each type of couple and individual. The book is vignette-heavy and contains detailed descriptions of theoretical technique, methodology, and diagnostic distinctions.

Finely attuned to the myriad ways in which individuals voice their complaints in marital, cross-cultural, and corporate settings, Lachkar offers us a treasure trove of insight and interventions, as she delineates communicative patterns across the globe within a dyadic context. She also introló'