ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the concept of the creative couple which locates the adult couple relationship in psychic development and distinguishes it from the early couple relationship between mother and baby. It explores what becomes possible in the kind of intimate adult relationship if it is functioning well. The chapter discusses the contribution of couple psychotherapists to thinking about work with parents, an important dimension of Mary Morgan's paper is the clear description of the psychoanalytic framework within which understanding of the couple/parent relationship at Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships (TCCR) takes place. As Morgan describes, couple psychotherapy at TCCR does not have parenting as its primary focus but the couple relationship itself. The relationship between "partnering" and "parenting" has often been referred to as a "missing link". Morgan sees the kind of development as fundamental to effective parenting, the bedrock for a creative relationship between parents.
