Until something does them apart: a study on the establishment and maintenance of contemporary marriage

• Grant number: 16/13621-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2016
• End date: September 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Thassia Souza Emidio
• Grantee: Juliana Beatriz Ferreira de Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL-ASSIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Assis. Assis , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The various social and historical changes that have occurred over time have contributed to significantly changing our ways of romantically relating. However, even with the new forms of conjugality, marriage is still present as an option. Although it is still permeated by some aspects of the nineteenth century's romantic love, such as the ideal of completeness, today's marriage holds some different characteristics from those of previous centuries, Thus, taking the historic transformations as a start point, we aim to analyze and reflect on marriage in contemporary society, and, basing on psychoanalytic theory, understand how romantic relationships come to be. We also seek to understand the meanings given by couples to the establishment and maintenance of marriage. In order to obtain such understanding, a qualitative research will be performed, using a semistructured interview as an instrument for data collection. Data analysis will be meaning to trace a link between the harvested material, psychoanalytic studies on the topics discussed, the historical background and the changing forms of conjugality. Then, we will reflect on the ways that the couples manage to maintain marriage at this point in time. This is relevant for us to reflect on how marriage, crossed by various social changes, personal idealizations and psychological aspects arising from romantic engagement, ensues and maintains today. Ultimately, the research aims to contribute to the current discussions and further studies on romantic relationships in contemporary society, so that one can think of loving choices that intend stability and duration.