Confronting and solving problems is a painful process, which most of us attempt to avoid. And the very avoidance results in greater pain and an inability to grow both mentally and spiritually. Drawing heavily upon his own professional experience, Dr M Scott Peck, a practicing psychiatrist, suggests ways in which confronting and resolving our problems – and suffering through the changes – can enable us to reach a higher level of self-understanding. Dr Peck discusses the nature of loving relationships: how to recognize true compatibility; how to distinguish dependency from love; how to become one’s own person; how to be a more sensitive partner.