This book is a truly excellent example of what I believe to be a vital trend for the future of psychoanalytic therapy—the integration of different analytic orientations. James Poulton offers a masterful synthesis of object relations and relational approaches to couple therapy, blending the intrapsychic, the intersubjective, and the cultural. Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy is filled with extensive case material illustrating how such a synthesis enhances clinical practice and also includes thorough examinations of timely topics such as trauma and hostility in couples, the nature and types of truth, shared internal objects, transference-countertransference entanglements, and therapist self-disclosure. Experienced therapists will deepen their couple work and new therapists will learn how to productively move the treatment to focus at times on the individuals, at times on the couple, and at times on the couple’s relationship with the therapist.

Michael Stadter

An exceptionally clear, theoretically and clinically acute application of cutting-edge relational theory, focused on treating couples. Object Relations and Relationality in Couple Therapy has joined my collection of key reference sources.

Richard Billow, postgraduate, Derner Institute

Authoritative and highly engaging, James Poulton navigates the choppy waters of intersubjectivity in therapeutic work with couples in a manner that will appeal to therapists of different persuasions and levels of experience. Applying a clear exposition of concepts from object relations and relational theories to detailed clinical vignettes he makes a compelling and illuminating case for valuing uncertainty in therapeutic practice.

Christopher Clulow, Tavistock Centre of Couple Relationships, London