The True Purpose of Speech: Connecting People
Conversation builds the bond between husband and wife. This chapter explores how listening deepens that connection, and how careless speech or a lack of attention can cause hurt and distance.
Psychology of family life
Read articles on family relationships, understanding one another, communication in marriage and shalom bayit, peace in the home.
Shalom Bayit: preparing a family conversation
The Goal: Achieving True Partnership
Husband and wife share the goal of a harmonious home. Understanding their differences and developing a sense of partnership can help them work together in family life.
When a Husband Seems Distrustful About Money
Questions about spending can be understood as mistrust or stinginess. This chapter examines the financial pressure behind them and the husband's sense of responsibility for the family.
The Husband's Role in Providing for the Family
This chapter looks at the emotional side of a couple's financial partnership: the sense of responsibility for providing for the family, anxiety about money and differing views on household spending.
Gender Equality
From time to time, I hear the following: “Your approach is completely unsuitable for our generation. Perhaps that was how things worked in the past. But today men and women are equal in society—women…
Being Responsible, but Not to Blame
There is another problem related to the partnership-oriented psychology of women and the isolation-oriented psychology of men. Husbands often complain that they are constantly criticized, regardless…
Relationships During Arguments and Hurt Feelings
We can observe a difference in how husbands and wives react when one spouse feels deeply hurt by the other. When a husband feels hurt by his wife, he withdraws into his feelings and often considers i…
A Husband's Goal-Oriented Thinking
One common difficulty in communication between spouses stems from the fact that a woman seeks partnership, while a man focuses on a goal. A wife tends to tell her husband about everything that has ha…
A Rhetorical Question, or "Why Is She Asking?"
The following example illustrates another aspect of the difference between men's and women's approaches to partnership. Rachel received a painting as a gift. She looks at the walls of her home and co…