The couple as an opportunity for mutual becoming

The work I am going to present comes from clinical activity with couples in therapy in the context of my professional practice, and this clinical activity is the field in which I put into practice all that I share with the 'group of thought' to which I belong, that is, the Area Progetto Coppia within the Society of Psychoanalysis of the Relationship in Milan. The choice of the clinical situation on which to focus, among others, is somewhat ambiguous in my mind: the case in question seems to me to be particularly representative of some specific dynamics of the couple dual that are often observed in psychological work with those who seek help from a crisis that is first individual, but which finds its privileged expression in the couple bond. Although paradigmatic, this situation retains its uniqueness: the constant tension in the attempt to combine complexity and unity can be seen as the fuel of this work. In continuity with Michele Minolli's theory of the I-Subject, and in particular with its application to the study of couple investment, I would like to follow the exciting vicissitudes of the two I-Subjects as they struggle with the precarious balance between fidelity to one's own configuration and the attraction of exploring new existential solutions. Such solutions, which are always open to renegotiation, can only be understood from a relational/interactionist perspective: they cannot be entirely conceived in the realm of the intrapsychic, but are introduced by the other of the couple and, in the name of investment in the other, can find an active energy that sustains their search. In this sense, the couple relationship can be understood as a potential context for individual growth and emancipation; it is an adult relationship in which each individual continues to become. It is therefore not a goal, but a promising opportunity for the individual evolutionary process of its members.