ABSTRACT
The husband of a marital pair I had been working with for about six months came for his therapy session in an extremely upset condition. His opening statements were, "I am going to divorce my wife. She is wrong in how she treats me. I can't live with her anymore. I am leaving her. The marriage is finished." When I asked him to tell me what had happened to make him decide to divorce his wife, he gave the following story:
I came home night before last on the verge of one of the greatest legislative successes of my career, I told my wife about a bill that was sure to pass in the state legislature the next day. It was a bill I had worked on for several years. It was sure to pass. Her response upset me. She seemed mildly interested in my success.
The next morning she announced that she was not going to work. She wanted me to take our daughter to nursery school on my way to the legislature. That was not too bad, but she did not once mention my bill. Can you believe that!
That morning, the bill was passed almost immediately. I was so excited. I called my wife to see if she could join me at the club for lunch. She said she had already made plans to meet a girlfriend for lunch. She was so insensitive to my feelings! She does not care for me! She is so wrong in her actions!
Early that afternoon, another one of my bills passed. I couldn't believe it! I again called my wife to ask her to join me and some friends for a celebration at a local pub. Can you believe it? She refused again. She had already picked up our daughter from nursery school. She said she had no one to take care of our daughter. She is not acting right in our relationship. That is not all! I asked her to go to a party with me that evening. She agreed to do so.
That evening when we stopped to drop our daughter at the sitter's, the sitter was sick. We could not leave our daughter with the sitter. I had to force my wife to go to the party anyway. She sat in a corner with our daughter all night. She did not show any enthusiasm about my success. I can't take it any longer! My wife is uncaring. She has no feelings for me. I am leaving.
