Book by Diane Vaughan, the full title being
Uncoupling: Turning Points In Intimate Relationships. Based on ten years of research into the patterns of
romantic breakups, it argues that whatever the type of
relationship (
straight,
gay,
married,
unmarried,
shacking up, etc.) pretty much all breakups pass through the same
stages and have many of the same
characteristics in common.
Not really a self-help book, but is tremendously comforting to read if you're in the middle of a breakup yourself. It illustrates each point with first-person passages by people who are just as hurt, angry, frightened and confused as you are (and for exactly the same reasons) and helps to make sense out of something that seems totally senseless at the time.