Clinical Perspectives on the Nature and Treatment of Romantic Breakups

Enduring a romantic breakup is a typically highly distressing experience but one that has been surprisingly neglected as a scholarly topic in the psychotherapeutic literature. This introduction reviews the enduring popular interest in this phenomenon and summarizes the contributions of the articles in this issue of JCLP: In Session, all of which focus on working clinically with individuals struggling with the breakup of a romantic relationship. Within this issue, Jackson's case study features the insights of a straight female psychologist working with a gay female patient through the aftermath of a breakup, noting both the universal aspects of the dissolution of romantic relationships as well as culturally specific dynamics that shape the breakup experiences of non-heterosexual individuals. Lierle and Farber present a case study illustrating how contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy helped a young woman deal with the enduring pain of the dissolution of her first (and intense) loving relationship. Leahy's case study, of a man beset with feelings of jealousy and the fear of losing love, demonstrates the value of an integrative, primarily third-wave CBT approach, to these problems. Iwakabe offers a non-western clinical take on the plight of the “other woman” at the end of her relationship with a married man. Blake and Rose report on their experience in a psychodynamic interpersonal process group with college-age students who initiated a breakup. Finally, Ziv-Bieman describes an integrative psychological approach to treating the multiple painful aspects of a romantic breakup, including those related to loss, despair, and challenges in imagining a positive future. These articles demonstrate the ways that psychotherapy, across multiple forms and cultural contexts, can facilitate the healing of romantic wounds.