Oedipus and the Couple

Francis Grier is an Associate Member of the British Psychoanalytical Society. He is also a Full Member of the Society of Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. He is a Visiting Research Lecturer at the Tavistock Marital Studies Institute, where he was previously a Senior Marital Psychotherapist and Clinical Lecturer. He has a private practice for individuals and couples. He edited 'Brief Encounters with Couples: Some Analytical Perspectives', which was published by Karnac in 2001.

• Series Editor’s Preface , Introduction , On being able to be a couple: the importance of a “creative couple” in psychic life 1 , Reflective space in the intimate couple relationship: the “marital triangle” , The couple, their marriage, and Oedipus: or, problems come in twos and threes , Coming into one’s own: the oedipus complex and the couple in late adolescence , Shadows of the parental couple: oedipal themes in Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander , “It seemed to have to do with something else …” , The painful truth , The oedipus complex as observed in work with couples and their children , Oedipus gets married: an investigation of a couple’s shared oedipal drama , No Sex couples, catastrophic change, and the primal scene *

'The supporting theory, as worked and reworked in successive chapters, is steeped in a broad range of psychoanalytic perspectives and raises some current and important questions. What, for example, determines the choice of a life-long partner? What are the internal conditions necessary for even contemplating such a choice? Other questions are ones that underlie not only work with couples, but also contribute important dimensions to the understanding of individual adult states of mind, children, adolescents, and families.'- Margot Waddell from the Preface