PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTAINMENT IN RELATIONSHIPS

This book is a call to action that invites readers to take away a portable understanding of psychological containment as a subtle but compelling aspect of relationship. An understanding of psychological containment affords the advantage of being able to discern whether a relationship has more of a potential for psychological growth or psychological harm. To facilitate a portable understanding, the book is organized in biographical chapters about modes of containment in relationships that include the following: • Novice newspaper reporter Carl Bernstein being mentored by Sid Epstein who was an accomplished newspaper editor. • Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein collaborating about relativity with Herman Minkowski who was a mathematician. • Psychologist Carl Jung in collaboration with Sigmund Freud who was the founder of the psychoanalytic movement. • Serial killer Ted Bundy in a romantic alliance with girlfriend Elizabeth Kendall. • Respected firefighter John Orr engaged in pyromaniacal interaction with serial fires. By applying the works of psychologists—Wilfred Bion, Duncan Cartwright and Warren Colman—to biographies of people who led (in)famous lives, this book invites readers to examine the modes of containment for psychological insight into relationships.