Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love & Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships by David Schnarch, David Schnarch (Introduction)

Understanding the depths of long term relationships.by DocD

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May 23, 2009: Dr. Schnarch has done an amazing life's work in his effort to synthesize sexual therapy and marital therapy. This appears to be his most clear and usable work from the individual's perspective. It is not easy material to understand and even less easy to put into practice, but once understood, the use of this information is truly life-changing.

My wife and I have read most of this book together about 3 times and have put most of what we've read into practice. Our relationship hes been rejuvenated and brought into a completely new dimension. This stuff is not for the light-weight or uncommited. It really is helpful when you've reached a total roadblock in your relationship and feel you have nowhere to turn.

Highly recommended for any commited relationship.

This is NOT a self-help manual - thank goodness!by Anonymous

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July 09, 2006: Many times in the last month I?ve recommended an old stand-by book by marriage counsellor and psychotherapist David Schnarch. Why? Because it has some very important concepts about how things work. Not just quick fixes, to-do?s, tips, and techniques, but real information that can lead couples to a new way of thinking, and therefore approaching, their committed relationships and sex lives. I?ll be the first to admit that Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships is not the most well written book. The first quarter of it is repetitive but the concepts are necessary to understand in order to fully realize the rest of its rich, valuable content. Bear with it it gets better. It combines marital therapy and sex therapy (finally!) and recognizes how the two are linked and must be dealt with. Based on Schnarch?s first book, The Sexual Crucible, (not recommended ? too dry) it is essentially for those self-actualized individuals, often more mature couples, who are willing to commit to working through the process of facing themselves first. It understands and discusses how men and women differ in prioritizing their relationship (men tend to let the relationship suffer to hold on to their sense of self women let their sense of self suffer to hold on to the relationship). It also explains why compromise is not always possible and why it?s often not the best option. Committed relationships can be a wonderful arena for personal growth and one?s capacity for sexual fulfillment and intimacy grows as one ages. Passionate Marriage talks about the process of marriage with insights that should have a positive affect on all one?s relationships, both intimate and casual. Written in 1998, with over a half a million copies sold, it was followed up in 2003 by the audio CD, Secrets of a Passionate Marriage (unabridged).