ABSTRACT

For anyone who practices marriage and family therapy the author says they have one kind of client population that seems to be a modal or predominating type. For three decades he has experienced more marital situations where one of the couple wants “out” of the marriage and the other wants to “stay in” than any other type. The idea for this collection of first-person therapy methodologies developed after two successive national meetings of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), in New York (1985) and Orlando (1986). The cases that were discussed were characterized by the presence of alcoholism, and drug and other addictions, rather than  presentations that dealt with a polarized couple wherein the marriage had simply become a devitalized, ho-hum relationship.  This volume seeks to address the balance.