Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships [Paperback]

Diane Vaughan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1990

Now in trade paperback, the ground-breaking and carefully documented book that shows how couples come apart.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Vaughan's examination of the breakup of relationships from a sociological and psychological perspective identifies the key steps in uncoupling from both partners' points of view. This schema is supported by 103 in-depth interviews and solid documentation from the professional literature. Useful to professionals, this work is also invaluable to lay people both because it normalizes a universal experience often seen as idiosyn cratic and because it will help those in the early stages of uncoupling to identify what is happening, enabling them to take the steps necessary to avoid the ultimate breakdown. Given the current divorce rate of approximately 40 percent, Uncoupling will have a wide readership and is recommended for general collections. John M. Haynes, Mediation Associates, N.Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Now in trade paperback, the ground-breaking and carefully documented book that shows how couples come apart.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (September 5, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679730028
• ISBN-13: 978-0679730026
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Relationships > Divorce

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last few chapters of the book of relationships., April 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships (Paperback)

I'm very picky and critical of self-help books, but Vaughan's Uncoupling is the next best thing to a counsellor. More than a psych book, it is the definite beginning-middle-end about how couples become uncoupled.

I picked up this book by instinct, as I needed to read something--anything--about how relationships end. I don't care about the why's anymore; I just wanted to understand what was happenning in my own relationship.

This book will not tell you how to save your relationship, or whether it's worth saving or not. Vaughan argues that there is a pattern to how relationships end. And in the telling, she gives the story that makes sense of everything--and that is all we need when we go row into the choppy waters of a faltering relationship.

113 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The devestating truth you may not be ready to hear or face, January 18, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Phoenix, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships (Paperback)

Regrettably, chances are that you will look for and find this book far too late in the process of uncoupling to save your own relationship. For the "initiator" has all the power to end or save a relationship and put the "partner" through hell in the process.

If you're the initiator, stop what you are doing, read this book and carefully consider the spiraling path to relationship destruction you are on.

Either way, I believe that you will learn more from reading this book than a dozen others. Much more than from marriage counselors or even Psychologists.

But the truth may be hard to take. It was for me as I was looking for help in saving my relationship from my wife's affair. Alas, she had long since started a transition out of our relationship and redefining me in negative terms.

This book will help you understand why the person you love can turn on you like a rabid dog, rip your beating heart from your chest, throw it in a blender and hit frappe!

Eventually you will want answers whatever the emotional cost and this book is filled with them.

However, if you are one of the fortuitous or lucky ones fortunate enough to find this before it is too late, then read, learn and act now before your life is sucked through a crushing black hole of change very few are ready for.

55 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sociology, not self-help, November 7, 2000

By 

Sabreur (Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relationships (Paperback)

This book is a sociological study--it discusses processes and patterns that typically occur as relationships fall apart.

As such, it does not provide solutions, fingers to put in the dike, compresses to stop the bleeding--in fact, it makes clear that most such measures are, finally, ineffectual.

At the same time, every relationship is singular--statistics portray the behavior of groups, without necessarily predicting individual outcomes.

If you are looking for a book that forces you to consider the individual and personal perspective in a damaged relationship, I strongly recommend "Should you leave?" by Peter Kramer.

Nonetheless, it is both enlightening and depressing to recognize "Damn, we've done that" as you read this book.

One final note: Ms. Vaughan's writing style is academic and often less than felicitous. The comparison between the liveliness and complexity of life shown in the quotations and her own dry, sometimes reductive commentary frequently annoyed me.