Marriage Counselling
The first full account of Remedial Work of the Marriage Guidance Councils. :Author: David R. Mace, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D. With a foreword by The Rt. Hon. Henry Willink, M.C., K.C. J. & A. Churchill Ltd.: London. 8s.
Whether psychiatrists like it or not, those who are in distress will seek counsel from all and sundry who are in a position of father or mother confessors, even if they do not call themselves by that name. This book, which is very readably written, gives a description of the evolution of the marriage guidance movement and describes the functions, scope, working and techniques of marriage guidance centres. It discusses, very wisely, the qualifications required for counselling, and describes statistically the results of the workings of the largest centre, that in London, based on 1,000 cases?the first 1,000 who sought advice. The research was the result of reports from 17 different counsellors who, no doubt, varied in ability.
The point is made, wisely, that many of the cases came when the condition reached the chronic phase and was not so readily amenable to benefit. The best results were achieved from those who came in ” under their own steam This emphasizes the need for a knowledge by the lay public of the principles of mental health and the facilities for mental health needs. It demands a fuller use of education facilities for health, and there is still little evidence that the National Health Service is doing anything under the section of the Act that provides for this.
One or two interesting facts come out of this service. Elderly bachelors marrying late have a particularly poor adjustment record, while elderly spinsters were average in this respect. That statement opens a whole field of speculation, especially when coupled with the fact that divorced women achieve average happiness in second marriages, but the record of divorced men was apparently very poor indeed. Almost half the cases were childless couples, and few couples with larger familes than the present low average required help. Over half the cases had sexual maladjustments, but the author does not seem to realize the importance of this being a symptom of a deeper emotional disharmony which requires patient and skilled investigation. That is one of the dangers of the marriage guidance movement, which requires a team approach to the problem so that those who are skilled in investigating the deeper causes of sexual maladjustment should be available for case conferences at least before the course of action is decided upon. In fact, the child guidance team method is advocated by the reviewer.
It is interesting that housing problems affected only an eighth of the cases, which indicates that those who advocate purely material and economic measures for the solution of the problem, are only going to help a few.
The author states that only one third of the group showed signs of defective mental or physical health. That depends upon the scope that he gives to the definition of ” mental healthIt is interesting that pre-marital sex relations showed a definite correlation with later marital troubles in the case of women. No psychiatrist would dispute this.
More than half profess to religion, which is higher than would be obtained in a normal population. 1 do not suggest that the conclusion should be drawn that marital disharmony is commoner in religious people, but the matter requires further investigation. Of the 1,000 cases, only 21% needed psychological help. This is certainly surprising as the emotional difficulties of marriage are generally symptoms of deeper psychological disorders. 70% benefited from counselling, and this is about the same percentage as one finds in the follow-up of cases from clinics for the treatment of those suffering from emotional ill-health. This book is well worth buying and studying for those who have care and concern for, and an objective interest in, the subject of the unity of family life. A.T.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.