A psychotherapist reveals the illusions people bring to relationships, helping readers better understand whether the person they are considering is good for them-or not.
Incorporating crucial psychological insights and case studies, Relationship Roulette: Improve Your Odds at Lasting Love shows how psychodynamics of which we may not be aware are often the culprit in failed quests to find lasting love. Psychotherapist Carol Diamond shows how longstanding personality patterns can interfere with getting what we really want. She teaches readers to decode repetitive behavior and describes how to initiate change so we are more likely to find lasting love.

Diamond's book focuses on understanding your own past and your partner's, as she spells out ways in which various issues emerge and can affect couples. The book explains what fuels the chemistry that repeatedly attracts us to partners who later prove a bad choice, and it discusses the variety of reasons for choosing a partner, listing basic relationship styles so the reader can identify his or her own style and how it fits with a particular partner. The final chapter offers a step-by-step blueprint to help readers change their minds and their actions-and stop playing relationship roulette.

Carol Diamond, MSW, has been a licensed practicing psychotherapist for 25 years.