Persuasive Essay On Being Married

733 Words2 Pages

Although fewer young people are getting married today than ever before, research suggests that getting and staying married is one of the best things you can do for yourself. As The New York Times recently concluded, "being married makes people happier and more satisfied with their lives than those who remain single — particularly during the most stressful periods, like midlife crises." But how do you know if you should get hitched in the first place? We asked Peter Pearson, couples therapist and cofounder of the Couples Institute of Menlo Park, California. Chemistry was his first answer. "Chemistry is not everything," he said, "but if the chemistry is not there, that's a tough thing to overcome. If the chemistry is more there for one …show more content…

"That works until someone gets tired," Pearson said — until one partner is shouting, "I'm tired of being the responsible person here!" When that happens (or ideally, before that happens), a couple has to go through the "differentiation" process. In another interview, Pearson's wife and Couples Institute cofounder Ellyn Bader described how the high-tension phase of differentiation works: People have to come to terms with the reality that "we really are different people. You are different from who I thought you were or wanted you to be. We have different ideas, different feelings, different interests." Differentiation has two components. There is self-differentiation: "This is who I am and what I want." This refers to the development of an independent sense of self: to know what I want, think, feel, desire... The second involves differentiation from the other. When this is successful, the members of the couple have the capacity to be separate from each other and involved at the same time. For couples to survive that differentiation process and maintain their compatibility, the real secret sauce is

Open Document