Premium
Marital Homeostasis and Spouse‐Aided Therapy in Persisting Psychological Disorders
Author(s) -
Hafner R. Julian
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
australian journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-8438
pISSN - 0156-8779
DOI - 10.1002/j.1467-8438.1980.tb00033.x
Subject(s) - spouse , marital therapy , psychology , psychotherapist , clinical psychology , medicine , sociology , anthropology
The concept of marital homeostasis is introduced to help explain the persistence of psychological disability in many married people. The symptoms of the designated patient are seen as often having a protective effect on the psychological adjustment of the ostensibly healthy marriage partner. Spouse‐aided Therapy is introduced as a goal‐oriented, time‐limited out‐patient approach designed to enable the patient's spouse to acknowledge and relinquish his contribution to the patient's continuing disability. This is followed by changes in marital interaction which facilitate the patient's symptomatic improvement.