Unconsummated marriage: A new focus on psychological distress faced by Indian women and possible psychological counselling interventions

Pages: 1395-1400
Sherin Lee Thomas and S. Thenmozhi (Department of Counselling Psychology, University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)

Unconsummated marriage can be defined as the inability to engage in successful coitus within the marital dyad. While medical and therapeutic intervention is available, many Indian women still suffer in silence and feel embarrassed about their condition. Indian cultural systems does not encourage early referral, its treatments were piecemeal and their aims uncertain; we tend to overlook not only warnings before the marriage and residual handicaps after its consummation, but also psychological abnormalities in the marital partner and in the mutual relationship. UM can have detrimental effects on the psyche of women, leading to low self esteem, blame games can result in frequent fights among partners, extra marital affair, fights within family or both the families. Also in a place like India (predominantly for not being able to conceive & give birth to a child) marital distress, frustration, depression, anxiety and if appropriate help is not available, it may lead to annulment of marriage and divorce. Little research has been conducted about unconsummated Marriage in India, which is home to diverse cultures and traditions and most publications have originated from Middle Eastern countries. The psycho dynamic factors pertaining to the failure to consummate the marriage should be investigated in detail and addressed. This present paper aimed to look into how unconsummated marriages cause psychological distress in Indian women and also attempts to identify those components of marital pathology which can be managed through psychological counselling. Etiological and possible multidisciplinary approaches are also discussed.