Nesreen’s Reviews > The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity > Status Update

“We have brought into our conception of marriage everything we once used to look for outside—the adoring gaze of romantic love, the mutual abandon of unbridled sex, the perfect balance of freedom and commitment. In such a blissful partnership, why would we ever stray? The evolution of committed relationships has brought us to a place where we believe infidelity shouldn’t happen.”

“I’ve observed an interesting connection between my patients’ responses to betrayal and the type of justice they are likely to seek. Some mourn the loss of the connection. “I’m hurt because I lost you.” Others mourn the loss of face. “I can’t believe you made such an idiot of me.” One is a relational injury; the second, a narcissistic one.”

“Marriage went from being an institution to being the consecration of a feeling, from being an externally sanctioned rite of
passage to being an internally motivated response to an emotional state."