EMPATHY IS THE KEY: NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE IN THE LIFE OF AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP, EMPATHY IS THE QUALITY WE NEED. "After all is said and done, to thrive in an intimate relationship, the quality most required is that of empathy extended from each partner to the other. We can attain this state after both partners have learned to know and accept themselves, and after they know and fully accept the other. In addition to empathy, we need to become curious and diligent students of our relationship, the We that we create, which is an entity unto itself and is as real as each of us as individuals."...