Posted 8:07 PM by Blah blah

[Saddam] Hussein Interview Is a Coup for CBS and [Dan] Rather: First Time Iraqi Leader Talks to a U.S. Journalist in 13 Years (Washington Post). Wow. Good job Dan Rather!

John Gottman: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work

Bought a 2nd relationship book recently. I highly highly recommend it! The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, by John Gottman. He's a psychology professor at the U. of Washington.

Gottman rejects some of the typical things marriage counselors tell you, like it's better for couples to vent about their problems, that validating your partner's ideas in an argument is necessarily helpful, and so on.

So view this book as the more scientific alternative to Susan Page's book. I love it! Gottman actually set up this apartment at the university that he calls the Seattle Love Lab. He wired it with cameras, microphones, etc. and invited couples to spend weekends there and be taped and studied from 9 am to 9 pm each day. No bedroom recordings. He tried his best to more scientifically see what patterns he could find in happy couples' behavior vs. disastrous couples'. His group studied several THOUSAND volunteer couples.

He says he can predict divorce.

Gottman says:

I am now able to predict whether a couple will stay happily together or lose their way. I can make this prediction after listening to the couple interact in our Love Lab for as little as five minutes!...[In] 91 percent of the cases...time has proven me right. These predictions are not based on my intuition or preconceived notions of what marriage "should" be, but on the data I've accumulated over years of study.

I've skimmed this book, and trust me, it makes a GREAT deal of sense! After Susan Page's book, I will profile Gottman's. Again, I appreciate all feedback from you.