Two-person Relationship Research Articles

Imagination Foreclosed: Searching for Each Other in the Digital Age

The digital age has normalized amateur sleuthing. Despite the fact that searching online for information about patients clashes with the analytic ideal, many of us google our patients. Dynamically speaking, what lies behind these searches? Certainly, the act of searching represents a premature foreclosure of imagination; it inevitably changes the relational matrix. It often conceals an unconscious communication that the analyst has not been able to acknowledge or examine. Internet searches can be individually or dyadically informed; in both instances, they disrupt the intimacy of the two-person relationship and our own self-experience as analysts. Even more troubling, they leave us holding secrets that breach an ethical line. This essay moves beyond the problem of boundary violations and explores how obtaining information about the other through online searches informs, enriches, and disrupts the co-created therapeutic experience.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Turkish and Kuwaiti Teacher–Student Relationship Questionnaire in Physical Education (TSRQ- PE Teacher Version): Testing for Measurement Invariance

Background: Within the 3Cs (closeness, commitment, and complementarity) theoretical framework of the quality of two-person relationships, a coach–athlete relationship quality questionnaire (CART-Q) was developed and validated to assess the nature of the coach–athlete relationship. In this study, a modified version of the CART-Q for physical education (PE) was adapted to assess the teacher–student relationship quality in the PE context in Turkey and Kuwait. The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial validity of the teacher–student relationship quality questionnaire (TSRQ-PE) within a sample of Turkish and Kuwaiti physical education teachers. Methods: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) was used to test the measurement of cultural invariance between these two groups. A total of 175 teachers from Turkey (n = 73) and Kuwait (n = 102) completed the TPRQ-PE. Results: MGCFA supported the factorial validity of the TPRQ-PE in a three first-order factor model across the two countries. Overall, these results add evidence to the psychometric properties of the TPRQ-PE and suggest that this instrument can be applied to measure the quality of the teacher–student relationship within Turkey and Kuwait, although caution may be required when applied to drawing comparisons between these two counties. Conclusions: The results of the present study could help physical educators and researchers in this field to understand the reasons and methods that lead to a quality teacher–student relationship.

Impact of Sexual Attitude and Marital Intimacy on Sexual Satisfaction in Pregnant Couples: An Application of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model.

The purpose of this study was to investigate actor and partner effects of sexual attitude and marital intimacy on sexual satisfaction in pregnant couples. Data were collected from 176 pairs of the pregnant couples visiting for prenatal care at hospitals from June 18 to September 24, 2016. The collected data were analyzed by paired t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficients using SPSS 18.0 and interdependent effect (Actor-Partner Interdependence Model analysis) through AMOS 18.0. The sexual attitude and marital intimacy of the pregnant woman did not have a partner effect on the sexual satisfaction of her husband, respectively (β=.12, p=.141), (β=.01, p=.938). The sexual attitude of the husband had a partner effect on the sexual satisfaction of the pregnant woman (β=.13, p=.021), but the marital intimacy of the husband did not show a partner effect (β=.07, p=.202). Study suggests that the sexual attitude and marital intimacy of pregnant couples should be considered as factors when developing an intervention to improve sexual satisfaction in couples. Moreover, pregnant couples should participate in intervention together because the sexual satisfaction has conceptual view of interdependence in two-person relationships.

Promoting Performance and Satisfaction Through Quality Golfer-Caddie Relationships

This study investigated the quality and functions of the golfer-caddie relationship guided by the 3+1Cs model of two-person relationships. An interview schedule was used to generate qualitative data about the quality of the relationship including determinants and outcomes. Twelve independent golfers and caddies participated in the study. One-to-one interviews were conducted and content analysis was used to analyze the obtained data. The qualitative data highlighted that the relationship was a close one and often described as either friendship, marital, working or familial relationship. The relationship was underlined by affective closeness (trust, respect), thoughts of commitment (long-term orientation), behaviors that were complementarity (responsive, receptive), and co-orientated views (similar values). Communication was an active ingredient of the golfer-caddie relationship that kept it current. The findings of the study further supported a link between the quality of the golfer-caddie relationship and performance success.

Reflections on Ferenczi, Analytic Subjectivity, and Analytic Hierarchy

For the most part, contemporary psychoanalytic theorizing situates the analyst as a subjective other in the analytic dyad, implicitly reducing the hierarchy seen in earlier conceptions of the psychoanalytic relationship—analyst as objective observer, patient as subjective participant. The seeds of this revolution begins in the 1920s with Ferenczi's recognition that the quality of the two-person analytic relationship usually carries more weight in successful analyses than does insight per se. Albeit in quite different ways, the roots of both interpersonal psychoanalysis and middle school object relations theory can be traced to Ferenczi's emendations of the classical Freudian model.

Assisting the Two-person System: An Approach Based on the Bowen Theory

The Bowen theory, developed by Murray Bowen, views the family as a natural system of relationships. This paper reviews basic concepts of the Bowen theory and describes their role in guiding the clinical approach to the disturbed two-person relationship.

Parallel Identification: A Shield Against the Assault of Traumatic Jealousy

This paper draws a connection between the clinical emergence of a primitive form of identification, termed parallel identification, and a temporary stasis in the transference. Parallel identification is defined as a manic defence that blocks the acute suffering brought on by consciously experienced jealousy arising from the loss of a beloved yet sadistic object. It occurs as follows: the identifying subject merges with his object of desire through compulsive imitation. This merger holds the subject in a developmental cocoon of non-being that negates his perception of any rivals for the object's love. Parallel identification, illustrated in two case examples, inhibits conscious jealousy, subsequently blocking the subject's capacity to evolve through empathy and fantasy. For theoretical context I introduce a framework that classifies established forms of identification dually, as either penetrating or nonpenetrating, with parallel identification offered as one example of the latter. Nonpenetrating identifications are merger fantasies that occur one-sidedly, within the subject only, protecting the subject from the trials of forging a more fully elaborated, three-dimensional internal world based upon spontaneous relatedness and empathy with another. Penetrating identifications occur bilaterally, impacting both self and other, allowing for an internal world of empathy and fantasy to be co-created within a two-person relationship. The paper asserts that nonpenetrating identification, though serving a protective purpose, may temporarily serve to blunt the power the therapist normally finds through internally tracking projective/introjective processes. In the first case example, the discovery and articulation of parallel identification brought a new sense of dynamism to a stalemate in the transference, while in the second case, the stasis-inducing presence of undetected parallel identification temporarily dulled the sharp edge of projective identification within an erotic transference. In both cases, parallel identification was a defensive response to unbearable jealousy that, until made conscious, inhibited relatedness in subtle but extreme ways within each treatment.

On understanding the role and significance of a key two-person relationship in sport and executive coaching

The importance of the role of the relationship between the coach and the individual has been emphasised in the literatures of both sports coaching and executive coaching. Two relationship models from the sport psychology and coaching psychology domains respectively that share an assumption of the centrality of the relationship to the coaching process; that have been used in research to assess associations with important outcomes; and share similarities at conceptual, operational and measurement levels were compared and contrasted. Both models highlight affective ties of closeness and bond for effective coaching outcome, and reflected potential synergies in the area of co-operation, as well as possibly diverging on their emphasis on the chronological sequence of the development of bond in relation to other aspects of the relationship. It is concluded that cross-fertilisation of ideas across psychological disciplines and future work with both models may be useful in contributing to the extant literature in their own and the other’s domain in promoting our understanding of the purposive and collaborative work of coaching and in establishing, developing and maintaining effective and successful relationships.

Nonverbal Social Behaviors of Patients With Bipolar Mania During Interactions With Virtual Humans

It has been proposed that positive emotional biases could make bipolar manic (BM) patients maintain abnormally approaching behaviors during social interactions. To test this hypothesis, we measured interpersonal distance (IPD) and gaze angle of BM patients and normal controls (NCs) during social interaction in immersive virtual environment. Overall, IPDs of BM patients (n = 20) were greater than those of normal controls (n = 20). The IPD difference was even greater between NCs and BM patients with psychotic features (n = 11) than those without psychotic features (n = 9). Regardless of the presence of psychotic features, BM patients averted their gazes more than NCs, and even more while speaking than while listening. Our results might suggest negativistic social cognition of bipolar patients, as was previously found even during a manic phase, or the role of paranoid symptoms in avoidant social behaviors, in agreement with prior studies with schizophrenic patients. Use of proper space and gaze might have psychotherapeutic implication in developing secure, two-person relationship with bipolar patients regardless of the presence of disrupting manic symptoms.

The Heart of the Matter in Matters of the Heart: Power and Intimacy in Analytic and Couples Relationships

This article is based on the supposition that power and intimacy play a critical role in the development and potential for ongoing growth in both personal and clinical relationships. While defining the distinguishing characteristics of power and intimacy in each context, this article also proposes that in any two-person relationship, analytic or otherwise, the power of intimacy at its best is achieved when there exists a relative balance—acceptable to both participants—in the inevitable dialectic between intimacy and power, a dialectic that cannot remain static and, therefore, requires mutual awareness and tending from moment to moment. Drawing from vignettes extending over 30 years of marriage and clinical practice, this article illustrates ways in which intimacy may flourish or falter in the face of unexamined transferences, primarily looking at how urgencies related to power may set this dialectic off course and thereby threaten to disrupt either the analytic or personal relationship. Este articulo se ...

The Measurement of Socially Desirable Responding in Two-Person Relationships: The Coach-Athlete Relationship

Four studies were conducted to assess the psychometric properties and the theoretical basis of a version of the Inventory of Desirable Responding in Relationships, which was originally developed and validated for the assessment of romantic relationships, in a different relational context (i.e., coach-athlete relationships). The first study aimed to address the content validity of the modified inventory, the Inventory of Desirable Responding in Coach-Athlete Relationship (IDR-CART) scale. The second study employed factor analytic techniques to examine its psychometric properties. Results confirmed the two-factor structure of the inventory: self-deception (CART-SD) and impression management (CART-IM). In the third study, data were collected under public and anonymous conditions. Results revealed, however, that neither condition supported the factor structure, thereby casting doubt on theoretical assumptions. The fourth study demonstrated that CART-SD is associated with indices of relationship quality, providing evidence of convergent validity. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Autonomy and Conjugal Love: A Reply to Golash

In my response to Golash I distinguish between two steps in my original argument. The first relates to the special value of conjugal (two-person) love relationships. I defend this step against criticisms, arguing that the two-person relationship provides a form of recognition that is of special importance to us and cannot be found in other sorts of relationship. The two-person relationship is one that, at least as private individuals, we have special reason to pursue. The second step concerns the claim that the special value of such relationships tends to promote the autonomy of those who have them. It is this second step that is important for the argument that a liberal state – one, at any rate, that takes itself to be in the business of safeguarding the pre-conditions of autonomy – could have reason to favour marriage or some form of civic partnership over other forms of intimate adult tie. However, I admit that Golash puts forward plausible – if anecdotal – arguments against this second step. I therefore agree that I need to be more tentative about this step than I was in the original paper.

Facilitating Analysis With Implicit and Explicit Self-Disclosures

I propose to get beyond the false stereotypes that have divided contemporary Freudian and relational psychoanalysts with regard to self-disclosure. Understanding self-disclosures made by analysts of all persuasions in the course of their everyday work requires a relational and intersubjective perspective, but not a paradigm shift. Disclosures of everyday analytic work are based on a two-person relationship in which two subjectivities are devoted to the “one-person psychology” of the patient. Three extensive clinical illustrations compare and contrast inevitable self-disclosures that are part and parcel of psychoanalytic treatment with those that are more explicit, conscious, and deliberate and serve a specific aim of treatment. Disclosures and interactions, as understood within this framework, are intended to demonstrate mutuality but not necessarily symmetry and equality of authority in the analytic relationship. The analyst's self-disclosures, although undoubtedly informed by countertransferences and other very personal reactions, are meant to facilitate and deepen a process in which the patient's psychic life is at the center.

The myth of Medea from the point of view of psychoanalysis

In this article, the myth of Medea is approached from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is based on two key ideas. The first is Freud's statement to Ernest Jones that fairy tales and myths may tell us about man's unconcious just as dreams do. The second is Philip Arlow's conclusion—shared by many other psychoanalysts—that myths are externalizations of unconcious childhood wishes and give them a concrete shape. These ideas cast a new light on myths as well as on Euripides ‘tragedy of Medea and add a completely new and deep dimension. Similar to a dream, a myth is viewed as an enigma; it may contain hidden wishes; its magic circle may turn events into their opposites and it can change its’ object by wrapping it in disguise. At the same time, the myth becomes clearly different from a story and a legend, or anything concrete for that matter. My interpretation of the myth of Medea is that of a girl's normal development, which essentially takes place in a two-person relationship before three-dimentionality is reached and understood. It is originally a description, which was sung collectively, of the achievements and difficulties of the development of a pre-oedipal girl, motivated by strong libidinal attempts to unite with her mother on the one side, wanting to separate from her on the other. An essential quality in this development is the pendulum movement towards and away from the mother, a swing that to a certain extent continues throughout a woman's life.

And Granny Makes Three

I have taken my title from the lines of an old song 'Just Molly and Me' and changed the verse to 'Just baby and me, and Granny makes three, in my Blue Heaven'. In this way, I emphasise the grandmother as the 'third person', an important potential position that she has in the 'blue heaven' of the emotional life of the family. The grandmother is also involved in the oedipal movement from the two-person relationship, 'Molly and me' or 'baby and me', to the three-person triangle, 'and Granny makes three'. It is usual to focus on the Mother-Father-Infant triangle of classical Freudian theory. However, as we all experience in our clinical work, there are many other variants for the so-called oedipal triangle. The role of grandfather is important too but this would need another paper. Andrew Samuels points out that the nurturing-mothering function and the fathering function can be provided by either parent or a substitute, the importance lying in that both functions are adequately provided for the infant's development. I would add to this that the grandparenting function is also important, whoever provides it. I do not believe it is a biological necessity but it is a fact that the nurturing function is performed by the matriarchal line in most families. I shall limit myself in this paper to the grandmothering functions and their psychological significance to the mother and baby.

Triangulation and adolescent development in the U.S. and Japan.

Using an indirect measure of family structure, relationships between parents and adolescents were studied in 99 U. S. and 60 Japanese families. As two-person relationships tend toward instability under stress, a third person may be drawn in to stabilize the system. Parents, for example, may avoid the tension in the marital relationship by focusing together on an adolescent's problem, or pull the adolescent into a coalition with one parent. Either way the parents are said to have "triangled" the adolescent. In this study, a relationship is found between parents avoiding tension in their own relationship and their tendency to triangle an adolescent. Triangled daughters, in both cultures, had lower scores on ego development, supporting the hypothesis that such patterns can be detrimental to the adolescent's personal development. The discussion includes comments on cross-cultural research.

Relatedness testing in subdivided populations

Assigning probabilities to alleged relationships, given DNA profiles, requires, among other things, calculation of a likelihood ratio (LR). Such calculations usually assume independence of genes: this assumption is not appropriate when the tested individuals share recent ancestry due to population substructure. Adjusted LR formulae, incorporating the coancestry coefficient F ST, are presented here for various two-person relationships, and the issue of mutations in parentage testing is also addressed.

Social interpersonal dimensions of the psychoses

This paper looks at the patterns for the creation and social management of insanity and the involvements of those concerned. It describes an interaction model with people in a social reality of everyday living, built up of and defined by ‘subjective’ definitions of a situation. The psychiatric profession, involved in their conventional medical one-to-one confidential consultations with their patients, fails to be informed about the societal dimensions with two, three or more members as first described by Simmel (1902) (1). The differences are traditional, ‘Two is company’ and ‘Three is a crowd'.If one of the possible two-person relationships in a family develops some emotional change to define itself as ‘Two is company’, this may alter the emotional balance in the whole family and may lead to ‘split minds’ (schizo/phrenia) and involving relationships with and between other family members. The arrival of the first baby changes two to three and creates ‘Our Family’. ‘Two is company: but it is not our family.’‘Three is a crowd’ but now, with three possible pairs, who is the odd one to be left out, or to push in or be pushed out? This is proposed as the interpersonal relationships substrate of the manic-(push in) or depressive (pushed out) psychoses in an older family generation. Both propositions are to be developed using probability theory to define the number of members, the corresponding numbers of their possible kinetic interpersonal relationships, their social dynamism probabilities, and potential outcomes involving modern non-linear mathematics. These patients are described as ‘not themselves’ or ‘beside themselves’. Those who are themselves but described as neurotic or psychopathic will also be mentioned.

Exploring mutuality within the nurse-patient relationship.

This article explores the concept of boundaries within the nurse-patient relationship. Drawing on child development theories the authors explore the difficulties of boundary maintenance and link this to the professional aspects of therapeutic alliance. The ability to establish clear boundaries between ourselves and others is closely related to the capacity to function as a healthy adult and as such may be said to play an important role in the development of mental health difficulties. However, it is generally accepted by psychological theorists that a certain amount of projection and transference are likely to occur in every two-person relationship and as a result boundary confusion is likely to be experienced by both parties to a greater or lesser extent in the nurse-patient relationship. If, as is currently asserted by the nursing profession, the nurse-patient relationship is based on the principle of equality then it follows that both the nurse and the patient carry equal responsibility for maintaining the boundaries within which their interactions take place. The authors argue that it may be more appropriate to think in terms of a relationship founded on the concept of 'mutuality'. Such a position enables the concept of therapeutic reciprocity to be embraced alongside the reality that ultimately it is the nurse who carries the responsibility for 'holding' the boundaries within which the relationship is 'acted out.'

Obsessional certainty versus obsessional doubt: From two to three

The article suggests that obsessional defenses that involve rigid adherence to sameness, with the need for rituals against contamination and disorder, belong to a schizoid way of functioning, in which splitting mechanisms are used not only against the experience of ambivalence, but also for the preservation of an exclusively two-person relationship with the object. Triangularity represents the major threat; new ideas, different points of view, anything that disturbs the equilibrium of this fixed, mutually interdependent couple is experienced as a third intruder, that must be immediately eliminated.