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  • Published: 25 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9781847928696
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $65.00

Couples

On Loving Another




A groundbreaking exploration of our relationships, and how understanding them can transform the way we see ourselves and the world, from clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr Orna Guralnik, of the acclaimed series Couples Therapy

A groundbreaking exploration of our relationships, and how understanding them can transform the way we see ourselves and the world, from clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr Orna Guralnik, of the acclaimed series Couples Therapy

Falling in love changes everything. It opens us up — to hope, inspiration and the possibility of caring deeply for another. But folded into this miracle is an unavoidable reality, and sooner or later the central crisis of every relationship emerges: your partner is not you.

What are the forces that bring people together and then pull them apart? What does it take to choose love? In Couples, Dr Orna Guralnik draws on decades as a psychologist, academic and couples therapist to uncover the underlying roots of tensions over sex, money, parenting and the division of labour, and to reveal a process, grounded in psychoanalytic listening, that allows us to break free from the repetitive patterns that trap us in conflict.

Moving from a furious state of blame to a place of empathy requires venturing into the unconscious — our childhoods, traumas and the ways in which we are held hostage by culture and ideology. Following this path, we stand to gain not only a deeper bond with our partner but also the capacity to see the world through the eyes of another, allowing us to join the forces that mend this troubled world.

Riveting and revolutionary, Couples shows that the conflict and redemption inherent in relationships can be among the most valuable opportunities of our lives.

  • Published: 25 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9781847928696
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $65.00

About the author

Orna Guralnik

Dr Orna Guralnik is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst practicing in New York City, widely known for her work in the critically acclaimed docuseries Couples Therapy. She is on faculty at NYU Postdoctoral Institute for Psychoanalysis in New York City, where she lectures and publishes on the topics of psychoanalysis and the socio-political, couples’ treatment as well as dissociation and depersonalization.

Praise for Couples

Couples is destined to become a classic. No one shows us how to hold love and trouble in mind better than Orna Guralnik

Ken Corbett, author of Boyhoods

A ravishing, unrestrained journey to the very heart of love. Couples should be required reading for every human being on the planet

Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours

An outstandingly good book. We can't help but identify with the people, dilemmas and frozen conflicts that Orna Guralnik writes so well about as she points us towards compassion, connection and acceptance of ourselves and of our fellow humans

Susie Orbach, author of In Therapy

With extraordinary intelligence, compassion, and psychological depth, Guralnik reveals how love can become a path toward greater self-knowledge, empathy, and connection

Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

With extraordinary intelligence, compassion, and psychological depth, Guralnik reveals how love can become a path toward greater self-knowledge, empathy, and connection

Lori Gottlieb, author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Couples arrives like a godsend into a world strangely saturated with both "therapy speak" and growing feelings of disconnection and dissatisfaction. By drawing on multiple models and methods at once – as well as on riveting real-life examples – Guralnik offers us a read that feels omnivorous, lucid, and most of all, supremely helpful

Maggie Nelson, author of Bluets

Couples arrives like a godsend into a world strangely saturated with both "therapy speak" and growing feelings of disconnection and dissatisfaction. By drawing on multiple models and methods at once – as well as on riveting real-life examples – Guralnik offers us a read that feels omnivorous, lucid, and most of all, supremely helpful

Maggie Nelson, author of Bluets

No one has done more in recent years than Orna Guralnik to offer us the tools with which to have better relationships. Anyone who liked her on screen will love her wisdom and insight on the page. This book can’t help but bring us ideas with which to illuminate challenging parts of our relationships

Alain de Botton, author of Essays in Love and co-founder of The School of Life

No one has done more in recent years than Orna Guralnik to offer us the tools with which to have better relationships. Anyone who liked her on screen will love her wisdom and insight on the page. This book can’t help but bring us ideas with which to illuminate challenging parts of our relationships

Alain de Botton, author of Essays in Love and co-founder of The School of Life

Dr Guralnik's curiosity and compassion, like her talents, seem to know no limit: healer, philosopher, cultural icon, and now, author of a brilliant book of her profound work with couples. For those of us who’ve long felt ‘Couple’s Therapy’ is the best show on TV, we now have its inner soundtrack. If you’ve ever watched Orna listen and wondered ‘What is she thinking?’—well, now you’ll know

Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

Dr Guralnik's curiosity and compassion, like her talents, seem to know no limit: healer, philosopher, cultural icon, and now, author of a brilliant book of her profound work with couples. For those of us who’ve long felt ‘Couple’s Therapy’ is the best show on TV, we now have its inner soundtrack. If you’ve ever watched Orna listen and wondered ‘What is she thinking?’—well, now you’ll know

Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies