The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships Paperback – June 25, 2002

Will help your relationships even if your significant other does not read it! Why do I know this? Because the only person you can change is yourself. When you decide to change and if you decide to use the techniques in this book to do so then your relationships have no other choice but to change.... for the better if that is your goal. iI was absolutely blown away by the accuracy of this book and its uses. I found out so many things about my relationship with my husband. I knew it was bad .. but I had no idea how bad or how to fix it. This book gave me exact step by step instructions if you will, to apply into my daily life. . While he or she may be the problem. I can assure you that whatever you are doing as a result of it is most likely not making it better or you wouldn't be looking for this type of book. This takes Dr. Phil's (Oprah Winfrey's friend on tv) advice much further and gives you not only the reasons but the conversations you can have and the things you need to know about each other for change to take place. A true must for couples looking to get married, or recently did get married, or have been married and are looking for the door. Even you happy folks can gain by the knowledge that your doing things right by the book so you don't need to be worried.I have been making changes everyday which are affecting all the people I deal with for the better, even though for me I KNEW he was and still is the problem. LOL!Cream of the crop of relationship books and for the past 20 years, I thought that I had read them all .. This book is better than all of those put together!!Not a quick or fast read. It is more of a study book and a life guide book.

Wish it came in a Kindle version. The best book to read if you're struggling with relationships.This book is a reader friendly overview of Gottman's scientific research on romantic interpersonal relationships. In the past I had read a ton of other relationship books, but none of these were substantiated by published, peer reviewed, scientific research. Since I'm working on my own PhD, at some point the lighbulb went off, and I did some research in the university library on what to read...and found out that Gottman is one of the few well respected academic experts on interpersonal romantic relationships (and other things.) If you look into some of the Interpersonal Communication psychology textbooks, some of them even compare Gottman's research to the gender stereotyped stuff that's out there...well, let's just say I had wasted a lot of money on things like Mars/Venus.Overall, I was very happy to read this book. It does not deal with gender stereotypes or cookie cutter instructions on how to act like a desirable man or a woman. It also does not make you feel bad for not "understanding the system" or the "other gender" or whatever. Rather, it but substantiates the grown up point of view that we are all individual humans and that you actually have to do some homework - that you have to learn, and be attentive to, the specific ways that your special person communicates his/her needs and emotions, given their specific background and experiences, in your specific relationship.Not easy to do, and it means work on your part, but it takes away all those "I am not good at this so tell me what to do" feelings that the other amateur hack books out there pray on.

As always, John Gottman's books are wonderful and clear, providing tangible facts and tools for building a better relationship. I've grown so much just by reading his material. My only complaint about this particular book is that the print is SO small!! The small print makes the content more daunting and difficult to read. It must be about 8pt. font. This is thick reading to start with, but add the small font and it becomes arduous. I might buy the Kindle version just so I can enlarge the font. Don't worry...I'm not some old foggy with bad eyesight. Just a person that doesn't want to work so hard to digest this great information!

Lots of great information and interactive tools in this book. Ive not yet finished it all the way but it really, so far has been very interesting.

Ah, John Gottman. Such wonderful research, such terrible titles.Anyway, I already had to return this book to the library so I can only give you my impressions-- as my sister says, "the spaghetti that's stuck to the wall." So here goes:Interactions involve people making "bids" for attention, affection, connection. When we respond successfully to others' bids, we are able to make strong and resilient relationships at home, work, school.When someone makes a bid, you can respond either by turning toward the bid and making that connection, or by turning away from the bid by ignoring it, or by turning against it by turning it into a chance to fight.So simple, right? Like Gottman's other books, the simple information is challenging to assimilate. I had to look at myself and realize how much turning away I do. And although I felt a little like an evil psychological mastermind, when I intentionally made bids and responded by turning toward bids at work-- wow. The sense of camaraderie and connection was palpable within a day or two.So although reading Gottman's wonderfully empirical research can be uncomfortable, his suggestions for successful relationships are marvelously applicable.

I got this book for a school class. It's a good insightful book, but I was not blown away. It's content is all commen sense. If you need it for class get it, but I wasn't really impressed. But if you have relationship issues, aren't versed in this topic, don't want to delve super deep into relationship psychology and are seeking insight, it should help you.