Due to the physical and emotional proximity characteristic of intimate relationships, breakdowns related to unmet needs and misunderstandings are inevitable. Most couples will employ tactics and coping mechanisms that reflect what they learned in their families of origin. Some of these more dysfunctional strategies include avoidance, domination, blame, accusations, psychological analysis, and lecturing. The most distressing maneuver is passive aggression, which is employed unconsciously and consists of withdrawal, sarcasm, deferring responsibility, extended silence, withholding valuable information, forgetting about agreements, taking no ownership of mistakes, and gaslighting.

Couples often hold the naïve belief that love will be all that is needed to address any problem that may arise. And with enough love, maybe there will be no problems. There are several reasons why love isn’t enough. First, unresolved childhood issues stemming from some measure of abuse or neglect naturally........

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