The Art of Marriage Maintenance

Given the fact that 50% of marriages end in divorce, you would think marriage wouldn't be so popular, but getting married is one of the most popular of all life events. In fact, many new couples are willing to face considerable debt for the wedding ceremony alone! It seems that many people spend more time on planning the wedding than on thinking about marriage and what it entails. The Art of Marriage Maintenance is about marital life after the wedding. It is about psychological and biological difficulties between men and women that make marriage so challenging. It is about why passion is in danger of fading within marriage, how hormones exacerbate behavior, and how the brain confounds us. It is about how pregnancy and having young children and adolescents often catapult a marriage to its breaking point and how the stresses of mid-life contribute to marital discord. It is, in effect, how to ensure a happy enduring marriage. It is the art of marriage maintenance.

T. Byram Karasu, M.D., a graduate of the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, is presently the Silverman Professor and University Chairman of the Deparmtent of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstien College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, and the editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychotherapy. He is the author or editor of 20 books, including two novels, Of God and Madness and The Gotham Chronicles―The Culture of Sociopathy; a book of poetry, Rags of My Soul; the seminal work, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders; and two best sellers, The Art of Serenity and The Spirit of Happiness. Dr. Karasu is a scholar, renowned clinician, teacher and lecturer, and the recipient of numerous awards. He lives in New York City.