Synopsis
Why are people attracted to their partners? How do couples adapt when their love affair transforms itself into a long-term relationship or marriage? With the aid of case histories based on interviews and her own reading of psychoanalytic theory, the author inspects a cross-section of couples.
Reviews
While love is often perceived and experienced as perplexing, journalist Troupp argues that there are specific psychological factors related to our personality and past experiences that draw us to our partners. Through the use of information gathered from interviews with 16 diverse couples, combined with psychoanalytic theory, Troupp examines the four stages of love-hope, projection, disillusionment, and attachment-and the four types of attraction-complementarity, similarity, shared defense, and repetition of past patterns. Through the stories of the interviewees, Troupp covers important issues faced in relationships: the decision to commit, expectations of the future together, dependence vs. independence, and sexual passion, as well as how the original choice of the couple manages to stay alive and how conflict influences the relationship. This well-written, serious look at mate selection based on psychological factors would strongly complement other books on the subject, such as Helen E. Fisher's The Anatomy of Love (Norton, 1992) and Mary Batten's Sexual Strategies (Tarcher, 1992). Highly recommended for all collections.
Dana L. Brumbelow, Auburn P.L., Alabama
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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