Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: Practical Guide for Improving Communication

A sign of great love is to offer help and assistance to another Venusian without being asked.

She said to me, “Why should I have to ask, after all I have done for him?” I explained that making him responsible for knowing her wants was not only unrealistic but a big part of her problem. She needed to be responsible for getting her needs fulfilled.

The important point here is that to enrich our relationships we need to make little changes. Big changes generally require some suppression of who we truly are. This is not good.

We expect the opposite sex to be more like ourselves. We desire them to “want what we want” and “feel the way we feel.”

When negative feelings are suppressed positive feelings become suppressed as well, and love dies.

To a certain extent a man loses himself through connecting with his partner. By feeling her needs, problems, wants, and emotions he may lose touch with his own sense of self. Pulling away allows him to reestablish his personal boundaries and fulfill his need to feel autonomous.

Setting limits and receiving are very scary for a woman. She is commonly afraid of needing too much and then being rejected, judged, or abandoned. Rejection, judgment, and abandonment are most painful because deep inside her unconscious she holds the incorrect belief that she is unworthy of receiving more. This belief was formed and reinforced in c

Men argue for the right to be free while women argue for the right to be upset. Men want space while women want understanding.

man assumes that her sudden change of mood is based solely on his behavior. When she is happy he takes credit, but when she is unhappy he also feels responsible. He may feel extremely frustrated because he doesn’t know how to make things better. One minute she seems happy, and so he believes he is doing a good job and then the next minute she is un