ABSTRACT
Inter-parental conflict that affects children badly originates from the way their parents behave and how their children process the significance of the conflict. The relationship between parental conflict and emotional security has intergenerational implications. The quality of the relationship established with couples is almost certainly more important in this process than therapist technique. Families can be thought of as constellations of subjectivity that define relationships between their members in cycles of reciprocal influence, gradually shaping the people they become. Children are conceived and develop under the psychosocial arc of their parents’ relationship, which forms an important aspect of their environment. While there are many routes to parenthood there is only one coupling that generates life. These are important issues that couples have to negotiate about in their own right, but they are also capable of containing historically rooted dynamic conflicts: sex; housework; activities; money and employment.
