Paperback: 320 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.88 x 8.28 x 5.54 Publisher: Owl Books; Reprint edition (September 2001) ISBN: 0805068953

Book Description

Originally published in 1988, Getting the Love You Want has helped thousands of couples attain more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. 

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Harville Hendrix shares with you what he has learned about the psychology of love during more than thirty years of working as a therapist and helps you transform your relationship into a lasting source of love and companionship. 

For this edition of his classic book, Dr. Hendrix and his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, have added a new introduction describing the powerful influence this book has had on so many people over the years. 

With its step-by-step program, Getting the Love You Want will help you create a loving, supportive, and revitalized partnership.

Investigating why his marriage dissolved led him to start looking into the psychology of love. Marriage, he ultimately discovered, is the "practice of becoming passionate friends."

As a result of his research, Hendrix created a therapy he calls Imago Relationship Therapy. In it, he combines what he's learned in a number of disciplines, including the behavioral sciences, depth psychology, cognitive therapy, and Gestalt therapy, to name just a few. 

He expounds upon this approach in Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples. His purpose in writing the book, he says, is "to share with you what I have learned about the psychology of love relationships, and to help you transform your relationship into a lasting source of love and companionship."

Divided into three sections, the book covers "The Unconscious Marriage," which details a marriage in which the remaining desires and behavior of childhood interfere with the current relationship; "The Conscious Marriage," which shows a marriage that fulfils those childhood needs in a positive manner; and a 10-week "course in relationship therapy, " which gives detailed exercises for you and your partner to follow in order to learn how to "replace confrontation and criticism ... with a healing process of mutual growth and support." 

The text is occasionally dry and technical; however, the information provided is valuable, the case studies are interesting, and the exercises are revealing and helpful. By utilizing his program, Hendrix hopes you too will be able to solve your marital difficulties without the expense of a therapist. --Jenny Brown

M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled
"I know of no better guide for couples who genuinely desire a maturing relationship."

Ann Roberts, former president, Rockefeller Family Fund
". . . the most incisive and persuasive I have ever read on the knotty problems of marriage relationships."

T. George Harris, editor in chief, American Health magazine
". . . the best program I've seen . . . to help a couple heal one another and to become whole together."

James A. Hall, M.D.
". . . help any couple find the love they want hidden under all the concealing confusion of a close and intimate relationship . . ."

M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Traveled
"I know of no better guide for couples who genuinely desire a maturing relationship."

Ann Roberts, former president, Rockefeller Family Fund
". . . the most incisive and persuasive I have ever read on the knotty problems of marriage relationships."

Marion Solomon, Ph.D.
"Getting the Love You Want provides a road map for partners seeking a path to intimacy and passionate friendship."

Ann Roberts, former president, Rockefeller Family Fund
". . . a remarkable book -- the most incisive and persuasive I have ever read on the knotty problems of marriage relationships."

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