The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Mentalizing Tales of Dating and Marriage

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Mentalizing Tales of Dating and Marriage is about the dynamics of intimate interpersonal relationships (dating and marriage) - how and why human pairings occur, what helps them function optimally and how therapists can intervene when they don't. J. Mark Thompson and Richard Tuch employ a multidimensional perspective that provides a variety of lenses through which intimate relationships can be viewed. The authors also offer a new model of couples therapy based on the mentalization model of treatment developed by Peter Fonagy and his colleagues.

This book is aimed at those interested in the nature of intimate relationships as well as those wishing to expand their clinical skills, whether they are conducting one-on-one therapy with individuals struggling to establish and maintain intimate relations or are conducting conjoint treatment with troubled couples who have sought the therapist's assistance. Thompson and Tuch view relationships from a wide array of different perspectives: mentalization, attachment theory, evolutionary psychology, psychoanalysis, pattern recognition (neuroscience), and role theory. A mentalization based approach to couples therapy is clearly explained in a how to fashion, with concrete suggestions about how the therapist goes about clinically intervening given their expanded understanding of the dynamics of intimate relations outlined in the book.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Mentalizing Tales of Dating and Marriage will appeal to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage therapists, and all those interested in both learning more about the dynamics of one-on-one intimate relationships (dating and marriage) from a truly multidimensional perspective and in learning how to conduct mentalization-based couples therapy.

J. Mark Thompson is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Training and Supervising Analyst at The New Center for Psychoanalysis. He teaches at the Department of Psychiatry, UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine. He also teaches at the Department of Psychiatry at USC and the Department of Psychiatry at UC Irvine.

Richard Tuch is Dean of The New Center for Psychoanalysis and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA, David Geffen School of Medicine. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst at The New Center for Psychoanalysis and at The Psychoanalytic Center of California.