Hao-Yi Hsu
Center for General Education, Taipei National University of the Arts
This study aimed to integrate the conceptual paradigms of system-oriented and psychoanalysis-oriented marriage therapy with the purpose of exploring the influences of childhood psychological states on marital relationships after growing up. Previous research has believed that the marriage therapy view of psychodynamics not only stresses family system dynamics but also sees the awareness of individual internal systems as an integral part of therapy. Based on the study of three cases, this study concludes that two mechanisms possess great influence on intimate relationships: “defensive psychological splitting” and “unconscious problem association.” The study further elaborates how these psychological mechanisms are formed in childhood and they can gradually form unstable marital relationships after growing up into adulthood. Lastly, according to the results of the follow-up interviews, this study proposes the utilization of “systematic object relations theory to illustrate the possibilities and future values of the views of psychodynamic marriage therapy.
Keywords: family system; marital therapy; object-relations; psychoanalysis; psychodynamics