Synopses & Reviews
"The future of relationships is moving us toward the vaulting awareness of who we really are as human beings, something we have managed to avoid for a very long time by being so thoroughly committed to convention...This is the future of love--vast love, love beyond boundaries, love without preconceptions and judgments, love without outdated myths--love which can actually be experienced."
At a time when over half of all marriages are ending in divorce, Daphne Rose Kingma, a well-known therapist and relationship expert, has recognized that our familiar ways of thinking about relationships are no longer working. "I have written this book because it is clear that many of our previous assumptions about relationships need to be dismantled," writes Kingma. "As we go through this process, we will discover a number of new ideas: that our relationships can have different forms than we ever imagined; that they will serve different purposes; that they will require different offerings from us. They will also bring us new gifts."
We are in the midst of a sea change, in which not only are many traditional relationships failing, but unexpected new arrangements are beginning to appear; gay marriages are surfacing, step-families abound, and many people are consciously choosing to live alone. As Kingma explains, these transformations should not be feared; instead, they represent a real opportunity. In the past, conventional relationships were often destroyed by an overemphasis on the nuts and bolts of psychology, on working to achieve the unattainable "perfect relationship" while ignoring our most vital selves--our souls. The glorious message of The Future of Love is that the disturbing changes we are all experiencing are actually part of the soul's plan, as it breaks down outdated conventions to bring us a new, fuller understanding of love.
Synopsis
With more than 500,000 copies of her books in print and two bestsellers to her credit, Daphne Rose Kingma is a major presence in the field of relationships. For over twenty-five years as a therapist and author, she has urged people toward the enchantments of romance and the fulfillments of marriage. But as she wrote her books about the traditional forms of relationship, she began to understand that her own loves vaulted over the walls and sailed off the maps familiar to her readers and clients. At a time when traditional marriage is losing its footing -- over fifty percent of marriages now end in divorce -- she realized that as a culture we need to develop a new way of understanding relationships, a way that moves beyond the tired conventions of the past to embrace new possibilities.
In "The Future of Love", Kingma explains how relationships are often destroyed by an overemphasis on the nuts and bolts of psychology, on working to achieve the unattainable "perfect relationship", at the expense of nurturing the soul. Relationships stuck on the level of psychology and personality are constantly coping with injury, blame, and accusation, while relationships on a soul level are able to move to higher levels of consciousness, dispensing with conventional structures in favor of love and forgiveness. Through anecdotes and examples from her personal and professional experience, Kingma discusses ways to free oneself from convention and to experience a more soulful type of relationship that is the medium and embodiment of spiritual enlightenment. Combining spirituality with a deep understanding of human nature, Daphne Rose Kingma has created a powerful and compelling guide to relationships forthe new millennium.
About the Author
An undisputed expert on matters of the heart, Daphne Rose Kingma has been a therapist for more than twenty-five years, and is a frequent guest on television programs like "Oprah," "Sally Jessy Raphael," and "Leeza." She is the author of six previous books, including the bestsellers Finding True Love and Coming Apart. Kingma lives in Santa Barbara, California.