ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the central place of enactment in the transference situation of couple psychotherapy and its significance as a primary mode of communication of unconscious meaning in the session. Throughout their lives people replay particular patterns of relationship within themselves and with others. These are shaped developmentally through their projections, identifications, and introjections, as the lived atmospheres of people's early lives become part of their internal worlds, shaping - and being shaped by - their relationships throughout their development. In considering the place of the transference in couple psychotherapy, people need to recognize the central place of enactment. The therapist's task is to be aware of being recruited or under pressure to conform to particular patterns of relationship, how the couple shape the transactions in the room in ways that avoid a contact with difficult or disturbing anxieties, relationships, or states of mind in order to preserve an emotional equilibrium.
