Relationship Sanity Creating and Maintaining Healthy Relationships 1st by Mark B. Borg Jr Brenner Berry 1942094019 9781942094005

ISBN 10: 1942094019

ISBN 13: 9781942094005

Author: Mark B. Borg, Grant H Brenner, Daniel Berry

No matter how committed two people are to being together, why can’t they get away from feeling something is missing? In this important and transformative guide, three experienced practitioners identify the widespread dysfunctional dynamic they call “irrelationship,” a psychological defense system two people create together to protect themselves from the fear and anxiety of real intimacy in a relationship. Drawing on their wide clinical and life experience, the authors examine behavioral “song-and-dance routines” repeatedly performed by couples affected by irrelationship. Readers will find a valuable framework for understanding their challenges with action-oriented tools to help them navigate their way to fulfilling relationships. Mark B. Borg, Jr., PhD, is a community psychologist and psychoanalyst, and a supervisor of psychotherapy at the William Alanson White Institute. Grant H. Brenner, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice, specializing in treating mood and anxiety disorders and the complex problems that may arise in adulthood from childhood trauma and loss. Daniel Berry, RN, MHA, has practiced as a Registered Nurse in New York City since 1987 and has worked for almost two decades in community-based programs.

Chapter 1 Anatomy of Irrelationship

Chapter 2 Performer or Audience?

Chapter 3 Short-Circuiting the Possibility of Love

Chapter 4 The Threat of Intimacy

Part Two Getting to Know YouSpotlight on the Performer and the Audience

Chapter 5 The Performer—Intuition Backfires into Isolation

Chapter 6 The Audience—Resisting Care

Part Three BackstageThe Inner Workings of Irrelationship

Chapter 7 Patterns and Pitfalls

Chapter 8 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Adulthood

Part Four Raising the Curtain on RecoveryFrom Irrelationship to Real Relationship

Chapter 9 A Brand New World

Chapter 10 The DREAM Sequence: Step-by-Step Recovery

Chapter 11 Living the Dream

Chapter 12 Zoe and Victor Break Free

Part Five EncoreCracked Open for Love

Chapter 13 Cracked Open at Last