Marriage is an institution that functions surprisingly well. But as Mae West so aptly put it: "I'm not ready for an institution."

We have a love-hate relationship with the idea of marriage. On the one hand, we embrace its emotional closeness and practical aspects, primarily the financial and emotional...

Start as you mean to go on.

This may sound like something your mother said, but it's also sound advice that can serve you well as you begin a relationship. Two of the most common pitfalls are revealing too much about your past and a premature leap to "I...

We all labour under the sad misconceptions of "romantic love." The implication is that we ought to "live happily ever after," but that's just not realistic. Or healthy.

In the flush of new love, it seems you are one, but of course you aren't. You have your own interests...

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. --Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Our expectations of romantic love as a foundation for marriage are too simplistic and, hence, unrealistic. Women, in particular, ascribe to the "happily ever after" scenario promulgated in everything...

Before You Begin
If I had to give only one piece of advice it would be, quite simply, don't expect to have all your needs met by one person.

This sounds like a variation on the platitude "Don't put all your eggs in one basket," but this tendency...

Sex, money, chores, and children: These are the four "hot topics" in most live-in relationships, sex being by far the hottest and - sadly -- the most pervasively avoided.

Stacks of self-help books and legions of therapists concur: Good sex is a barometer of relationship health. Making love can...

Of the 1,154 past or present human societies, nearly 1,000 have permitted a man to have more than one wife.

Life-long fidelity is a Judeo-Christian invention, which likely came about for economic reasons: a way to guarantee paternity of offspring for men with property to bequeath and...