ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the first application of W. F. D. Fairbairn's ideas to understanding couple relationships, as set out by Henry Dicks, in his classic text Marital Tensions. It summarises Dicks's thinking in relation to Fairbairnian concepts. Although Dicks clearly speaks with authority, and "knows his stuff", he presents his ideas and case examples as a study with the scientific aim of testing the validity of two hypotheses. Dicks moreover feels that Fairbairn's schema particularly fits his hypotheses in helping to understand the "dynamics of idealization" on which the hypotheses are based. Dicks sees marriage as a "social relationship", and considers that the sociological concepts of "role performance" and "culture patterns" complement his object relations perspective. Dicks had prepared the ground of his argument by recounting Fairbairn's theories of the infant's defensive manoeuvres to deal with unrequited love, by withdrawing part of the self into a split-off enclave—the libidinal ego.
