An Unexpected Result of Psychosis in Marriage
ROBERT L. DUPONT M.D.1,
ROBERT G. RYDER PH.D.2, , and
HENRY U. GRUNEBAUM M.D.3
1 Consultant, Family Development Section, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. and Director, Narcotics Treatment Administration, Department of Human Resources of the District of Columbia, 801 N. Capitol St., N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002
2 Chief, Family Development Section, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.
3 Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
In the course of a marriage research project, 44 couples were studied in which one spouse had been diagnosed as psychotic. Dispelling the commonly held assumption that the marriages of psychotic individuals are always chaotic and unrewarding, many couples reported feelings of love and mutual understanding growing out of the psychotic experience and their attempts to deal with it. This unexpected finding has important treatment implications: it suggests that the nonpsychotic spouse should be actively engaged in the psychiatric treatment process and that the psychosis can be effectively dealt with as a marital crisis.
