ABSTRACT
The authors assert that a more functional and satisfying relationship may be realized when it is primarily reality based rather than rooted in the early myths of the relationship. They enable a rapprochement between the members of a dysfunctional dyad through the framework of the psychotherapeutic process must be seen as a primary task for the couples therapist. The propensity for the members of the couple to be drawn back into the delightfully delusional hopes, remembrances and expectations of the courtship and early ‘marital’ period can be overwhelming. The joyous, nurturing folly of the early stages of a loving relationship is often wondrous and ‘magical’, as the authors assert. The assumptions of expectations, established, perhaps with little thought, during this stage fail us when the magic fades and the anchor of reality grounds us to the demands of life.
