For a long time, it can seem as if we are just unlucky in love. We spent three years with one person and sadly, it was very tumultuous and in the end, they left us for someone they met at work. Then came another partner who, after a promising start, turned out to be rather cold and disdainful. Then there was our most recent friend who, though undoubtedly tender in parts, could never be wholly present in or committed to the relationship. All this can seem like a series of accidents until, very slowly, perhaps prompted by a kind and clever friend or psychotherapist, we may grow better able to study our patterns. Whatever we tell ourselves, it may be that we have, for a long time, been picking characters who, we must somewhere inside us know, will not allow matters to flourish. We may have been studiously avoiding a deeply troubling possibility, reciprocated love. And we may do so because our childhoods strongly versed us in the need to accommodate ourselves to a difficult or unavailable parent. In our early years, our leading emotional priority might have been
長い間、私たちは恋愛運がないように思えることがある。ある人とは3年間付き合ったが、悲しいかな、とても波乱万丈で、最後は職場で知り合った人に去られてしまった。その後、別の相手が現れたが、その相手は期待されたスタートを切った後、むしろ冷淡で軽蔑的な人物であることが判明した。そして、最近の友人は、部分的には間違いなく優しいが、その関係に完全に存在することもコミットすることもできなかった。このようなことは、親切で賢い友人や心理療法士に促され、自分のパターンを研究できるようになるまで、非常にゆっくりと起こる。私たち