Love, its Meaning and Exploration in Couple Therapy

Love, its Meaning and Exploration in Couple Therapy explores essential questions about love in couple relationships and couple therapy. The respected international contributors assembled here consider a range of topics in relation to love: its place in the consulting room, what love means to couples and whether this can be problematic, specific challenges for same-sex couples, love in non-monogamous relationships, and the impacts of cultural difference. Each chapter considers an aspect of love and psychoanalytic practice or theory with openness and curiosity, providing a valuable and vibrant perspective on this essential topic. The contributing authors offer a variety of perspectives on love reflecting different theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks. Love, its Meaning and Exploration in Couple Therapy will be essential reading for all clinicians who want to understand, and find new ways of working with, love in intimate adult relationships.

Mary Morgan is a psychoanalyst and consultant couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist. She is a leading figure in the field of couple psychoanalysis and is author of several books, chapters and articles in the field, including A Couple State of Mind: Psychoanalysis of Couples and the Tavistock Relationships Model (2019) and Couple Relations: A Contemporary Introduction (2025), both published by Routledge. Julie Friend is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist serving individuals and couples and offering professional consultation. A founding member of the Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group of the San Francisco Bay Area, she is past director of their Intensive Study Program and current core faculty. She also sits on the editorial board of Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. Her publications (2013, 2021) have explored creative engagement and love in couple relationships.

Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction Chapter 1: Mary Morgan - The Fate of Love in some couple relationships Chapter 2: Julie Friend - Does Love Matter in the Consulting Room? Chapter 3: Judith Pickering - A Question of True Love? Chapter 4: Shelley Nathans - The Dialectics of Attachment, Sexuality and Love in Couple Relationships Chapter 5: Ortal Kirson-Trilling - Love is where we start from; An examination of Winnicott's 'use of an object' as it relates to mature love in the couple relationship Chapter 6: Karolina Pniewska - You make me feel....The function of the transformational object in love relationships Chapter 7: Philip Stokoe - Helping Borderline Couples Find Love Chapter 8: Timothy Keogh - Primitive layers of love: The need or desire for the Other Chapter 9: Rachel Cooke - On Love, Loss and Longing in Lesbian Couple Relationships Chapter 10: Gary Grossman - Obstacles to Love in Gay Male Coupling Chapter 11: Monica Vorchheimer - All you need is love? Chapter 12: Tao Lin - The Evolution of Love Through Psychoanalytic and Daoist Perspectives Chapter 13: Perrine Moran - Somewhere (There's a Place for Us)...: A Cross-Cultural Approach to Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Intercultural and Interracial Couples Chapter 14: Damian McCann - Open & Polyamorous Relationships: Many loves or the mad hatter's tea party! Chapter 15: Christopher Vincent - Love as a containing function in later years or its victim