ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the author's theoretical formulations regarding the development, maintenance and evolution of personal, conjugal and family myths. Conjugal mythology is the concept used to describe the loosely organized complex of spouse's personal themes that stand in various types of relationships to each other. The ideal spouse-in-relation-to-the-self in the context of one's ideal marriage becomes a central theme when one is preparing for marriage and actively seeking a mate. Prospective spouses are chosen because they are perceived as being able to fit into important themes in the individual's personal mythology. Material gathered in the Personal Myth Assessment Interviews regarding spouses' and family members' favorite stories, plays a central part in our approach to editing conjugal and family myths. This regard draws heavily from a number of theoretical frameworks. Among these are family systems, human developmental, cognitive-behavioral, Jungian analytical, and object relations theories. Later the chapter illustrates how the empirical instruments and structured assessment interviews are used clinically.
