FairlyFearless's "The people and ideas which most shaped me"

In my view, David Schnarch is today’s most brilliant, tough, compassionate and insightful thinker on matters relating to relationships. Though a therapist, his ideas touch philosophy and spirituality, but are earthy and include sexuality.

He is the author of PASSIONATE MARRIAGE and CONSTRUCTING THE SEXUAL CRUCIBLE. He says things so clearly that are just not out there in Dr.Phil-Harville-Hendrix land, where loving someone meets you validfate and support them all the time. Instead, Schnarch sees committed relationships as “the engine driving personal growth,” and views difficult periods not as pathological (ie, something’s wrong) but healthy (it may not feel good at times, but that is the way marriage works to engender growth).

When you first come in contact with his ideas, your head may spin like Linda Blair’s in The Exorcist… you have simply never heard anything like this before, anywhere, and yet it all makes perfect sense.