Ok, this is where we don’t want our relationships to go.
One of the startling results of John Gottman’s research is the ability to predict divorce, with a greater than 90% accuracy, from viewing a single 15-minute video clip of a couple discussing an area of continuing disagreement. The motivation behind John’s research was to isolate the qualities that make marriages strong. In the process, he couldn’t help but observe the factors that fracture a marriage.
Those couples who did divorce within the following four years, slid down what he came to call the Distance and Isolation Cascade. It looks like this:
Flooding → Emotional Disengagement → Parallel Lives → Loneliness → Divorce.
