Restoring Reciprocal Empathic Responsiveness (RER) as an Individual- Couple Therapy PRESENTED AT:
8th World Congress of the International Family Therapy Association (IFTA) July 1996, Athens, Greece.
SARA IWANIR, Ph.D.
Marital dysfunction is viewed in the RER model from an integrative interpersonal - intrapersonal perspective, synthesizing concepts of self psychology and system theory into a process of change. The systemic theoretical perspective gives meaning to the way the couple organizes itself as an organic unit to preserve its balance at moments of threat triggered by some intra-psychic event, and clarifies how the couple's interactional behaviors are structured into rigid patterns. The therapeutic procedures are theoretically based mainly on concepts taken from self- psychology, particularly the self–self-object matrix (the leading conceptualization is detailed in the theoretical introduction). The following therapeutic model deals with several types of distress that signal failure in the couples’ mutual empathic responsiveness. The major intrapersonal difficulties that the partners will encounter in such a relationship are: unclear boundaries between self and non-self, problems in dealing with frustration, childish and unrealistic view of the mate, as if s/he will always be able to satisfy one’s needs. And there is also an anticipation of disappointment. In such cases, most partners feel a great deal of anger, and Sara Ivanir, Ph.D.
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Reciprocal Empathic Responsiveness (RER)