Welcome to session eight, our final session!
We shall explore the nature of loving relationships. Particular emphasis will be given to the idea that enduring love is an activity characterised by the development together of valuable relationship qualities, such as care, commitment, fairness and generosity (traditionally called "virtues").
The notion that love is an achievement and that we "bestow" value on our partner will be discussed.
Finally, we shall look at the idea that relationship counselling itself is an ethical activity.
Key article:
Blaine Fowers: The limits of a technical concept of a good marriage.
(Please see especially page 8 and following, on whether virtue language adds an additional element to the notion of loving relationships.)
Further additional refernces:
Mike Martin: Shared pursuits in love.
(An easy to read introduction to the link between love and virtue. This is a chapter from his latest book just published entitled Happiness and the Good Life)
The moral life of babies.
(Studies of infant psychology at Yale University.)
Blaine Fowers, Instrumentalism and psychology.
(A complex but important critique of the supposed value neutrality of psychological techniques.)
Core competencies for session eight:
Books.
Thank you to all our participants for sharing your unique perspective on all of the important issues in couple work that we have considered. The sharing in the group is an invaluable part of this program. Best wishes on your own journey, and we hope to see you again in one of our other programs very soon.
We shall explore the nature of loving relationships. Particular emphasis will be given to the idea that enduring love is an activity characterised by the development together of valuable relationship qualities, such as care, commitment, fairness and generosity (traditionally called "virtues").
The notion that love is an achievement and that we "bestow" value on our partner will be discussed.
Finally, we shall look at the idea that relationship counselling itself is an ethical activity.
 |
| Blaine Fowers |
Key article:
Blaine Fowers: The limits of a technical concept of a good marriage.
(Please see especially page 8 and following, on whether virtue language adds an additional element to the notion of loving relationships.)
 |
| Mike Martin |
Mike Martin: Shared pursuits in love.
(An easy to read introduction to the link between love and virtue. This is a chapter from his latest book just published entitled Happiness and the Good Life)
The moral life of babies.
(Studies of infant psychology at Yale University.)
Blaine Fowers, Instrumentalism and psychology.
(A complex but important critique of the supposed value neutrality of psychological techniques.)
Core competencies for session eight:
- Awareness of the value base of couple work
- Awareness of the role of core values such as commitment to successful couple relationships
- Ability to develop in the couple a sense of "us"
- Awareness of love as an active process involving generosity and bestowal
- Awareness of the effect of using thicker value based descriptions
- Ability to use virtue and value descriptions in work with a couple
Books.
John Armstrong, Conditions of Love, Penguin Books, 2003
Blaine Fowers, Beyond the Myth of Marital Happiness, Jossey Bass, 2000.
Mike Martin, Love’s Virtues, University Press of Kansas, 1996.
Thank you to all our participants for sharing your unique perspective on all of the important issues in couple work that we have considered. The sharing in the group is an invaluable part of this program. Best wishes on your own journey, and we hope to see you again in one of our other programs very soon.
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