Competing selfobject functions: the bane of the conjoint therapist

The sheer ferocity of competition over needs rarely exhibits itself more than in the consulting room of the conjoint therapist. While cognitive and behavioral therapies may short-circuit this process by negotiating each partner's "fair share" of wishes and responses, such approaches circumvent the examination of the source of such dire competitiveness. Furthermore, they leave the participants with little depth of understanding of what each so vehemently has at stake. In this realm, the psychoanalytic perspective lends a unique vantage point by helping us understand the depth of unconscious need provoked among marital couples or otherwise committed partnerships.