Alan

“Loneliness is holding in a joke because you have no one to share it with.”
― Neil Strauss, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book about Relationships

“The problem many people have is that the exact quality that originally attracted them to their partner becomes a threat once a serious relationship begins.”
― Neil Strauss, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book about Relationships

“Relationships are like divining rods for locating one’s faults and weaknesses.”
― Neil Strauss, The Truth: An Uncomfortable Book about Relationships

“people, both professionals in the field and lay people, are not fully aware of the extent to which human beings are directed and controlled by primal feelings. They underestimate the pain that is aroused by positive experiences in life. They cannot understand a person’s resistance to positive or corrective experiences and the negative reactions caused by genuine caring or concern. They do not recognize the fact that when people are responded to in a new, more positive way, it severs their bonds and cuts them off from their past. It makes them aware objectively that they were not loved or treated respectfully, that they were not listened to or responded to realistically or compassionately when they were young.”
― Robert W. Firestone, The Fantasy Bond: Structure of Psychological Defenses