Published: March 24, 2010
Marriage, marriage counselling, and eugenics! A Critic at large (New Yorker) discusses the legacy of Paul Popenoe, the father of marriage counseling, and reviews three recent books on marriage: The Husbands and Wives Club: A Year in the Life of a Couples Therapy Group
by Laurie Abraham…(see Laurie in the video that I posted earlier today)
Rebecca L. Davis observes in an astute, engaging, and disturbing history, More Perfect Unions: The American Search for Marital Bliss
, the rise of couples counselling has both coincided with and contributed to a larger shift in American life: heightened expectations for marriage as a means of self-expression and personal fulfillment. That would seem to make for an endlessly exploitable clientele, especially given that there’s not much profit in pointing out that some things—like the unglamorous and blessed ordinariness of buttering the toast every morning for someone you’re terribly fond of—just don’t get any better. Not everything admits of improvement.
“Understanding the science of marriage gives us a crystal ball of sorts,” Tara Parker-Pope writes inFor Better: The Science of a Good Marriage
. Did you know that the first three minutes of an argument are the most important? That “strong marriages have at least a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative interactions,” so that “for every mistake you make, you need to offer five more good moments, kind words, and loving gestures to keep your marriage in balance”?
😀 Enjoy!
Source: The New Yorker
Published: March 24, 2010
Published: March 24, 2010
In 2009, approximately 40 percent of adults were single, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a new study, “I’m a Loser, I’m Not Married, Let’s Just All Look at Me,” a University of Missouri researcher examined the familial and societal messages given to women who are not married by their mid-30’s. Although the number of single women has increased, the stigma associated with being single at that age has not diminished, according to the women in this study. “We found that never-married women’s social environments are characterized by pressure to conform to the conventional life pathway,” said Larry Ganong, co-chair of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. “This pressure was manifested in women feeling highly visible and invisible. Heightened visibility came from feelings of exposure and invisibility came from assumptions made by others.” [continue reading…]
Published: March 24, 2010
A survey by the Royal College of GPs has revealed that only 15% of GPs can usually get psychological therapy for adults who need it within two months of referral. For children the figure is only 6%.
The survey, detailed overleaf, was carried out as part of a new Campaign calling for better access to psychological therapies, spearheaded by the mental health charity Mind and the economist Professor Lord Richard Layard, with support from the RCGP, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the New Savoy Partnership.
Launched at Westminster, the campaign challenges all of the political parties to make a guarantee in their election manifestos to offer, within five years, evidence-based psychological therapies to all who need them within 28 days of requesting referral. [continue reading…]
