ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights two areas of shared unconscious activity—the projective system and the shared unconscious phantasy—and shows how they can provide us with a rough but meaningful “couple geography” of shared unconscious dynamics. Falling in love is one of the most powerful experiences of the unconscious at work but, like all unconscious processes, is out of reach and difficult to understand. Falling in love has a parallel with the passionate first love between mother and baby. R. Britton has described the maturational process through the lens of the Oedipus complex, highlighting the significance of the infant’s relationship not only to each parent separately, but also to the parental couple as a couple. Many couples come without a meaningful “narrative”. This narrative, which involves not just memories of experiences but some capacity for thinking about themselves and linking them up into what amounts to a personal story, is a crucial part of the development of personal identity.
