Chapter 1 - The Hurt Partner's Response: Buried in an Avalanche of Losses Summary and Analysis

Chapter 1 begins the first of three major divisions within the text: Stage 1 - Reacting to the Affair: "Is What I'm Feeling Normal?" The two chapters in the first stage involve, respectively, the hurt partner and the unfaithful partner. Both chapters are average in length for the text. There is some overlap between the chapters but this is thematically necessary, intelligible, and minor.

Discovering a partner's unfaithfulness is a devastating experience; some hurt partners compare the emotional toll as being worse than that caused by being victimized by rape. Beyond emotional and intellectual upheaval, affairs may cause devastating physiological impacts, which persist through the short term. Once physiological effects subside, a host of psychological impacts become prominent. The text identifies...