Reviews and Comments

good to occasionally review the bleeding edge of modern medicine

I have come to appreciate, through this book, the "ethical" in #ENM. Before, I thought it was simply a necessary defense against the seemingly ubiquitous critical assumption that anything other than monogamy is unethical. But as I have listened, I have realized that, of course, #ethics drives the whole movement, and ethics circumscribes mononormativity, and ethical questions are the substance of every individual's decisions about how to love the people they love. It's all ethics! Honestly, maybe ENM could be defined as the ethical study of love and family, and the cultural practices framing them.

I wish I could live in a world where everyone has read this book.

Would you expect a book with this title to be saccharine? It delivers a balanced and grounded positivity in the presence and acknowledgement of common life challenges. Horrors, even. I value it very much, and confess I am drawing it out. Which is easy because the essays are short and there are a lot of them.

Honestly I kinda lost interest. I wanted to get into the heads of the different kinds of networkers more. Interesting; glad I read it; done.

I come back to this one every time I feel like a pushover and resent spending my limited energy on things other people just want to offload. Does it help? Well, Knight's attitude and wit help me feel better, so that's worth something.

Definitely some interesting reporting, but not good for my psychology.

Green's "review" of air conditioning is profound.

My partner tells me asking for help is a weakness of mine. I definitely have a perception that the way "the world" or "people" or "society" works requires me to be as self-reliant as possible. We'll see if and how that part of me can shift.

Not sure I'll finish it. I've learned a few things and remained confused but I think that's congruent with the message. I'm going to hazard a synthesis: Mandatory sexuality in culture is a fixation on an extreme, and because many people so poorly fit the implications and social dynamics of mandatory sexuality, asexuality provides a perspective that sex and sexuality may be unimportant for a healthy individual.

Good message but this sheer willpower method doesn't really fit. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of willpower. I think accepting and engaging in reciprocal loving relationships would work better for me. Easier said than done, of course. My issue is how pervasive social injuries were hardwired into my body during "critical periods" and I see that when I look in the mirror. IE if you have PTSD, this book is naïve. But I would still recommend it with appropriate expectations.

Excellent points made on the importance of pleasure, the potential of placebo, and a strong finish, critiquing the diagnostic model of the DSM.

Good, right, and important, but somehow I did not manage to grow much between the start of Together and its finish.