John Gottman
FameRank: 4

"John Mordecai Gottman" is a professor emeritus in psychology known for his work on marriage/marital stability and relationship analysis through scientific direct observations, many of which were published in peer-reviewed literature. The lessons derived from this work represent a partial basis for the relationship counseling movement that aims to improve relationship functioning and the avoidance of those behaviors shown by Gottman and other researchers to harm human relationships. His work has also had a major impact on the development of important concepts on social sequence analysis. Gottman is a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Washington. With his wife, Julie Schwartz, Gottman heads a non-profit research institute (The Relationship Research Institute) and a for-profit therapist training entity (The Gottman Institute).

Gottman was recognized in 2007 as one of the 10 most influential therapists of the past quarter century. "Gottman's research showed that it wasn't only how couples fought that mattered, but how they made up. Marriages became stable over time if couples learned to reconcile successfully after a fight."

More John Gottman on Wikipedia.

Contempt is the sulfuric acid of love.

We used to think the rate of postpartum depression was 9 percent. We now know it is much higher than that.

Discussions invariably end on the same note as they begin.

They have flexibility and humor and affection.

Kids find the setting of limits comforting and soothing. They need to know that (the parent is) in control.

The real cradle that holds the baby is the emotional climate between new parents. Many significant social problems [like violence] in our society can be traced back to this negative emotional climate in families.

It's a myth that if you solve your problems you'll automatically be happy. We need to teach couples that they'll never solve most of their problems.