The dialectics of attachment, sexuality, and love in couple relationships

Many couple relationships suffer from problems that interfere with or arrest their sexual relations, which can in turn raise uncertainty about the extent or validity of their attachment or love. The explanation most frequently offered in popular media and couple psychotherapy literature is that the biology of sex and attachment are incompatible. I argue instead that attachment, sexuality, and love develop and thrive in mutually influencing dialectical processes that are not easily or usefully separated into distinct systems in either infantile or adult experience.