The Marriage of Love and Soul: Eros and Psyche in Couples Therapy

Abstract

This hermeneutic research explores couples therapy from a Jungian approach with both classical and archetypal lenses using the myth of Eros and Psyche as the guiding mythopoetic image. It challenges Hera and Zeus as the traditional myth of marriage, and examines the encounter of love and soul depicted in the Eros and Psyche myth as an alternative. Issues such as shadow material, projection, power struggles, unconscious relational expectations, and the tension of opposites are discussed as represented in the myth and as dynamics in relationship and couples therapy. Individual individuation processes, including meeting of one’s own needs and expectations as opposed to conflict negotiation, are considered as an effective approach to therapeutic work with couples, and are juxtaposed with Psyche’s experience. Jung’s concept of the transcendent function is examined as a more effective means of dealing with conflict. Teaching couples how to both discern and engage archetypal energies in themselves and within their relationship is also presented. Additionally, alchemical images are explored as demonstrative of the perpetual dance of death, transformation, and rebirth, which can be understood as the coupling and uncoupling movements present in all intimate relationships. The birth of pleasure, as portrayed at the conclusion of the Psyche and Eros myth, is considered as an alternative goal for partnership to the traditional one of mere longevity.