LEADER 00000nam a2200385Ii 4500 
001    on1419791962 
003    OCoLC 
005    20240203173515.8 
008    240202s2024    nyu      b    001 0 eng   
010      2023036060 
020    9781250280916|q(hardcover) 
020    1250280915|q(hardcover) 
035    (OCoLC)1419791962 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cPCX|dPCX|dOCLCO 
049    WHPP 
050 00 BF575.F66|bC634 2024 
082 00 177/.62|223/eng/20231106 
100 1  Cohen, Rhaina,|eauthor. 
245 14 The other significant others :|breimagining life with 
       friendship at the center /|cRhaina Cohen. 
250    First edition. 
264  1 New York :|bSt. Martin's Press,|c2024. 
264  4 |c©2024  
300    308 pages ;|c22 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-295) and 
       index. 
505 0  Defining the relationship -- Other significant others -- 
       What's sex got to do with it? -- Be your own man -- 
       Functional families -- The long haul -- Give them grief --
       Friends, with benefits. 
520    ""Rhaina Cohen's moving, intimate portraits of people in 
       unusually devoted friendships upend our cultural 
       narratives about which relationships matter . . . an 
       arresting work of compassion and insight."--Lori Gottlieb,
       New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk
       to Someone and co-host of Dear Therapists podcast. Why do 
       we assume romantic relationships are more important than 
       friendships? What do we lose when we expect a spouse to 
       meet all our needs? And what can we learn about commitment,
       love, and family from people who put deep friendship at 
       the center of their lives? In The Other Significant Others,
       NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who
       have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life 
       partner--these are friends who are home co-owners, co-
       parents or each other's caregivers. Their riveting stories
       unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, 
       including the idea that sex is a defining feature of 
       partnership and that people who raise kids together should
       be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from 
       different walks of life--spanning age and religion, gender
       and sexuality and more--reveal how freeing and challenging
       it can be to embrace a relationship model that society 
       doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world
       around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of 
       The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life. 
       Based on years of original reporting and striking social 
       science research, Cohen argues that we undermine romantic 
       relationships by expecting too much of them, while we 
       diminish friendships by expecting too little of them. She 
       traces how, throughout history, our society hasn't always 
       fixated on marriage as the greatest source of meaning, or 
       even love. At a time when many Americans are spending 
       large stretches of their lives single, widowed or divorced,
       or feeling the effects of the "loneliness epidemic," Cohen
       insists that we recognize the many forms of profound 
       connection that can anchor our lives. A rousing and 
       incisive book, The Other Significant Others challenges us 
       to ask what we want from our relationships--not just what 
       we're supposed to want--and transforms how we define a 
       fulfilling life"--|cProvided by publisher. 
650  0 Friendship. 
650  0 Conduct of life. 
650  7 ethics (philosophical concept)|2aat 
994    C0|bWHP