Mating in Captivity

What it is about

Esther Perel examines a central paradox of long relationships: the safety and familiarity that sustain attachment can conflict with the distance, novelty, imagination, and uncertainty that often support desire. Through clinical stories, she explores how domestic roles, parenthood, secrecy, fantasy, and power shape erotic life. It stays near me because the distance between loving someone and knowing how to love them well should not become an idea I can praise from a safe distance.

Why I keep it

Desire in long relationships. Perel asks the question honestly.

Key ideas

Beside it on the shelf · Relationships & Love