Peace, War, and Mental Health : Couples Therapists Look at the Dynamics

Provides diverse views on the links between strengthening marriages and preventing and solving international disputes. One common theme is the belief that couples, like countries, need to build bridges instead of walls for healthy relationships.

Discover how issues of world war and peace relate to the dynamics of couples therapy in this thought-provoking book. In Peace, War, and Mental Health, couples therapists provide diverse views on the links between strengthening marriages and preventing and solving international disputes. Although the contributors vary in their approaches to this issue, a common theme is the belief that couples as well as countries need to build bridges, not walls, for healthy relationships and they need to strive to learn what others are really feeling, thinking, or needing underneath the defenses others exhibit.

The contributing therapists in Peace, War, and Mental Health explore the various links between couples in conflict and nations at war. Chapters describe how prevention strategies used for couples in therapy may be applied to the well-being of the world as a whole and how significant change is possible through the involvement of only a small percentage of the population. Other chapters focus on specific tools for couples therapy such as outlines of the major tasks of relationship building and traps that mitigate against good relationship construction, a description of the nuts and bolts of conflict resolution, and the use of flashcards to help both members of the pair present his or her real feelings to the other.

Some of the intriguing topics covered in this book include:

• the relationship between psychotherapy and spirituality and the paradox of individuals longing to belong since each is a part of the whole
• the role of gender on war and its potential impact on peace
• the failure of the humanistic movement
• societal attitudes linking domestic violence and large scale violence
• how the potential for resolution of differences in couples can be applied to peace among nations
• how prevention may be expanded to include the “mental health” of the whole world--Part V of an interview with Virginia Satir
  
  Peace, War, and Mental Health helps therapists look at international peace and couples therapy with new perspectives, a necessity in today’s rapidly changing family and world climate.