ABSTRACT
This chapter explores The Winter's Tale with an examination of the important issues that cluster around the theme of truth, and particularly in terms of the issues that emerge when try to think about truth and truthfulness in the couple relationship. It suggests that a psychoanalytic understanding both of therapy and of relationships, particularly following the contribution of Wilfred Bion, gives centre place in the developmental process to the capacity to acknowledge and think about the truth, the reality, of one's experience. The chapter discusses what the "false-self couple", drawing on a well-known concept of Donald Winnicott, the false self as distinguished from the true self. Both couples were desperate to uncover the truth of what had happened between them and to them in their relationships. It is interesting and important to consider the relational dimension of the capacity to face the truth of one's own emotional experience.
