FIDELITY AND INFIDELITY

This is a fuller explanation of the psychodynamics of marital behavior, although throughout Dr. Saul, a practicing psychiatrist, refers to the early childhood years as being particularly decisive in determining later patterns. If a reasonable harmony in marriage is to exist, seven components must be synchronized--among them love, sexual attractiveness, responsibility, maturity, etc. In drawing from his clinical experience, particular cases illustrate more general and recurrent situations (whether hostile, regressive, etc. and whether occurring at thirty, forty or fifty). Human behavior, he finds, parallels that of the animal world, and while referring to Ardrey, Lorenz, etc. he also dismisses the latter, particularly since Dr. Saul believes that emotional drives are not so much instinctual as conditioned by parental relationships. A serious, responsible discussion intended to contribute to self-knowledge and guidance without lapsing to the level of oversimplification which most books, in this area of counseling, do.