Questioning the Rule-Making Imperative in Therapeutic Stabilizations of Non-Monogamous (Open) Relationships

摘要

Given increasing social scientific and public interest in open relationships, attending toudtherapeutic engagements with such a lifestyle choice is of topical concern. Specifically, the rulemakingudimperative for the creation and stabilization of open non-monogamies involves the widelyudembraced principle in counseling and self-help literature that a "couple's" rules for their nonmonogamousudengagements are crucial for personal and relational well-being. Data presented inudthis article stem from semi-structured interviews with seventeen UK counselors/psychotherapistsudwho identified their therapeutic engagements with consensual non-monogamies (primarily in gayudmale open relationships) as being "affirmative" in some way. A Foucauldian-inflected thematicudanalysis highlighted patterns of meaning in relation to: perceived non-monogamous disorder;udclinical recognitions of the inevitability of disorder; and ways in which assumed non-monogamousuddisorder, and thus the warrant for rule-making, can be reinforced in psychological terms. Drawingudon the notion of "bifurcation" put forward in chaos theory, it is argued that to enlist the imperative ofudrule-making as a precautionary or remedial strategy is to overlook the more productive aspects ofudchaotic turbulence in open relationships and thus undermine alternative recognitions of relationaludhealth and well-being.