Bocquet, Florence

The Impact of Sibling Relationships on the Couple - 2010.


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This article shows how sibling relationships interfere with conjugal relationships. The psychoanalyst of the couple seeks to discover, through the bond, the way in which each invests in the other, being attentive to sibling histories in order to identify and lead couples to work out these sibling complexes. Through rediscovering memories, sensations, and emotions, each partner can resume their place in their history, attempt to symbolize a past experience, and integrate it as part of their history while no longer suffering from it. The couple is situated in a genealogy and filiation. While it may lessen the Oedipus complex, passion for a brother or a sister can affect the imaginary unconscious, infiltrate the choice of a lover, and disturb sexual relations. Those who have not overcome the Oedipus complex, the sibling complex, believe they love the other, whereas in truth they are seeking themselves through that other.