The Single Woman-Married Man Syndrome

(Paperback)

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Many single womanmarried man relationships are characterized by such recognizable, even stereotypic, interactions and run such a predictable course as to constitute a genuine syndrome. Documenting the existence of this syndrome with case histories from inside and outside clinical practice, Dr. Tuch gives serious consideration to the complex dynamics involved and offers a framework to help patients struggling with their involvement in such affairs. A broader discussion of relations between men and women evolves and addresses such issues as men's dread of women; women's unique inclinations to employ masochistic adaptations in their relations with men; married couples' varied styles of dealing with their differences; the relationship of power and control to the processes of domination, submission, and the act of surrendering; and the development of the capacity to fall and remain in love.

Reviews

The book has wide application to developmental psychology and will be useful to the clinician, because it expands simplistic notions of extramarital affairs without vilifying either party. * Choice Reviews *
This book is a much-needed detailed clinical investigation of a phenomenon that is usually hushed up. Finally, here is a clinician who has the courage and expertise to provide us with some useful wisdom about his all too common syndrome. -- John M. Gottman, Ph.D., University of Washington
Kudos are in order for Dr. Richard Tuch, who masterfully articulates to his professional audience the commonly encountered but rarely discussed syndromethe single woman the married man. He approaches his subject with empathy and respectful curiosity, placing the reader in the couple's intersubjective field, which is characterized by obsessive longing, chronic ambivalence, and interchanging victimization. Drawing from plural psychodynamic paradigms, he artfully captures the nature of their interlocking but doomed relationship. It is a stellar, clinically rich work, reflecting Dr. Tuch's seasoned clinical acumen. -- Carol Tosone, Ehrenkranz School of Social Work, New York University
In focusing on the single woman-married man syndrome, Dr. Richard Tuch has isolated and identified a discrete and highly complex piece of behavior with elegance and with unusual clinical precision, highlighting the uniqueness of this particular constellation. He studies it from the points of view of the irreducibility of its intersubjective nature, from the dynamics of interpersonal power and control issues, and from the aspect of the later ego of the married man that the affair with the single woman is able to evoke. He ably describes the mutual illusion of powerlessness in each of the participants. This is a highly unusual study of an often overlooked syndrome of behavior with which all therapists have had to deal. -- James S. Grotstein, M.D., International Psychoanalytic Association

Author Bio

Richard Tuch, M.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at Los Angeles, and Attending Psychiatrist at the CedarSinai Medical Center. He has written numerous articles on such subjects as writer's block, the limits of empathy as a therapeutic tool, and the role of social cognition in personal relationships. A frequent presenter at meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Dr. Tuch is the recipient of the 1995 Karl A. Menninger Memorial Award for Psychoanalytic Writing. He maintains a private practice in West Los Angeles.