Anyone involved in, embarking on, or yearning for, an intimate relationship should buy, borrow or steal Intimate Partners.New WomanWhat goes on in our intimate attachments? What patterns of relationships do couples tend to follow, and why? The bonds we create affect every aspect of our lives, and yet our grasp of them is limited by our emotional reactions and learned responses. Now, in Intimate Partners, bestselling author Maggie Scarf gives us the classic book on marriageon how love relationships are formed and how they change over the course of the marital cycle. Here youll discover how to understand ones inherited emotional historyand how fits with a partners the fascinating ways in which power and control, and intimacy and autonomy exert strong effects upon the kind of partnership two people create surprising observations on the role of sex and the impact of children on marriage why change can be experienced as a form of betrayaland how to ensure that a relationship matures with, and is not impeded by, each individuals growth simple exercises that couples can do to resolve tensions and change the nature of the world they share verbal and physical techniques to cope with sexual difficulties and enliven a couples connection during sex straightforward methods for how to engage in healthynot dysfunctionalquarrelsIntimate Partners is a book that changes not only how we view love relationships, but also how we live them.Every marriage contains a story, and it begins long before the wedding, Maggie Scarf tells us in her ambitious, thought-provoking . . . ultimately compelling study. . . . Read it and feel consoled.USA TodayListen to Maggie Scarf . . . and youll come away thinking that yes, marriage can be tough, living long-term with another person is one of the greatest challenges there is, but its well worth the effort.Chicago TribuneProvocative . . . Scarf writes lucidly and convincingly.The Washington Post Book WorldFrom the Trade Paperback edition.