Psychological Containment in Relationships: Converting Experience To Meaning

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.