Relationships (The School of Life Library)

Love has a history and we ride – sometimes rather helplessly – on its currents. Since around 1750, we have been living in a highly distinctive era in the history of love that we can call Romanticism. And it has been a disaster for love. Relationships challenges the assumptions of the Romantic view of love. It shows how to develop new attitudes that can lead to a psychologically mature vision of love: ▪ That it is ok that love and sex may not always belong together ▪ That discussing money early on, in a serious way, is not a betrayal of love ▪ That realising that we are rather flawed, and our partner is too, is of huge benefit to a couple ▪ That we will never find everything we need in another person, nor they in us ▪ That spending two hours discussing whether bathroom towels should be hung up or can be left on the floor has its own dignity Full of applied real-life examples, and enlivened throughout with humour and cultural anecdote, this innovative guide paves the way to a new, brighter future for love.