BAILING OUT: The Healthy Way to Get Out of a Bad Relationship and Survive

by Barry & Elena Oumano Lubetkin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 21, 1991

Advice from a cognitive therapist on how to assess whether a relationship is truly hopeless and, if so, how one can ""bail out"" with minimum distress to self, partner, and children. Lubetkin--who's addressing mainly women since, he says, three out of five relationships end at the instigation of the female partner--offers a head-spinning array of questions to diagnose a relationship's ills and prospects. He also offers help in the form of such techniques as creating a six-column chart to detail incidents of abuse, holding a ""screening weekend"" to minutely and ceaselessly observe and evaluate one's mate, and keeping a ""feelings log"" to record every emotion aroused by the mate. Written in a merely serviceable and sometimes ungainly style--despite the help of Oumano (Paul Newman, 1989; Sam Shepard, 1986, etc.)--the book, through its sheer mass of questions and techniques, may help some readers clarify issues and envision alternatives. But others may be put of f by a patronizing quality (""Are you a Love Slob?""; ""Make a Fear Buster Chart""), and the whole premise that human misery is remediable by charts and togs and snapping robber bands on one's wrists.

Pub Date: Feb. 21, 1991

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Prentice Hall Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1991

Categories: NONFICTION