ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an Irish couple in their late sixties who were referred for conjoint couple therapy as a result of serious and escalating conflict. The therapeutic action of the therapy appeared to emanate from the real time exposure to a functioning couple. The functioning of couples such as Catherine and Patrick can be seen to be at the borderline level, characterized by extreme splitting and projection, encompassing a way of being frozen in a repetitively traumatic past. Yet, recognition of the real existence of traumatic events in the couple's history will be important. Once the imminent danger of separation diminished, the value of the conjoint therapy came into its own, as a counterpoint to the couple's entrenched defensive bastion. According to the therapists, the link between the patients is the product of a narcissistic collusion caused by their being trapped in a forbidden mourning.
