The Couple Relationship as a Third

Presented by Mary Morgan

2 CEUs
Dates: March 6 2026
Time: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST
Fee: $160

Abstract

There are different kinds of co-created thirds in couple relations describing different kinds of phenomena. From the link perspective, the third is the link itself that is inevitably created in a relationship between two or more. A third entity, which is not simply the aggregate of the two psyches, but new and not predetermined, is created by the couple and this entity, the link, then influences and shapes the couple (Nicolo & Norsa, 2017).
 
Within the Tavistock and other object relations approaches there are different kinds of thirds, one of which is the coming together of a couple’s shared anxieties, such as their co-constructed shared phantasies or their unconscious beliefs and the shared defences they establish to mediate them. Dicks’ concept of a joint marital personality (Dicks, 1967) and the creation of the couple’s projective system also refers to defensive and developmental systems a couple create between them that influence the way they interact. Or the third entity may be a shared value system that the couple create between them, as in Kernberg’s concept of a couple superego (Kernberg, 1993). All these kinds of thirds have a structuring function for the relationship and influence the couples relating.
 
Other kinds of thirds, mainly within the Tavistock approach, are those that function in a relationship as a symbolic entity and stem from psychic developments within the couple - fostering containment, reflective space and creativity.

Course Objectives

1) Describe briefly what is meant by Ogden’s ‘analytic third' (2004)

2) Describe briefly Brittons idea of a ‘third position’ (1989)

3) Describe two  kinds of couple analytic thirds