Despite handicaps of low mental ability, deprived backgrounds or psychiatric and physical disability, most married couples with disabilities manage to give and receive much personal satisfaction and pleasure in their marriages. This is of special interest to professionals and social workers, who in the course of their jobs are called upon to give support and service to people with mental disabilities.

Originally published in 1979 Ann and Michael Craft had spent four years researching a sample of 45 marriages with at least one spouse with a mental disability. In three-quarters of the partnerships both spouses have a mental disability. This was the largest group of married subjects with a mental disability studied in this country at the time, and the Crafts’ conclusions were of considerable importance, for, with the recent trend towards normalization, marriage was becoming a viable possibility for more and more people with mental disabilities. The purposes of the study, therefore, were to give an account of the authors’ research concerning married couples with mental disabilities, to suggest some ways in which service to such couples might be improved, and to provide material for teaching purposes.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1979. The language used is a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.