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Perel: Couples grow apart from how they experience differences, not differences themselves

Esther Perel · #71 Esther Perel: Cultivating Desire · Dec 10, 2019 · at 31:34

Psychotherapist Esther Perel explains to Shane Parrish why couples grow apart, distinguishing between having differing opinions and feeling threatened by differences.

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“Look, when people grow apart, it's not because they have a difference of opinion, necessarily, because some couples have major differences in opinion, but they continue to remain deeply connected, curious about each other, respectful of who they are, and they, they're not threatened by the difference of the other, basically. Other couples, the slightest difference is World War III, you know, so it's not in the difference itself. It's in the way that people experience the difference.”

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