Romantic love is parasitic.  Unconsciously, we seek out partners who can serve as "hosts" we then use to inhabit our previous relationship traumas.  And the host, once recruited, chosen, and "injected" into, houses and nurtures our injured past.  As the parasites grow inside our lover/host, he/she is altered and becomes the perpetrator who victimizes and does not love. 

In the next meetings of the Men's Group and the Dating and Relationship Group on Saturday, September 20, 2014, I will present this story of "recruitment," elaborating further on what I discussed in the initial segment of this series on September 6 (available for your review in this hyperlink). And I will outline the silver lining in all of this -- yes, there is hope that love can win over infection (to take this metaphor as far as it can go!).  Each of us must be aware of how we serve as our partner's host, and how, simultaneously, we seek a host into whom we inject our parasitic material.  On Saturday, I will comment extensively on how to recognize this recruitment process and the nature of the parasitic material you are receiving.  I will also address the other side of the equation, i.e., how to understand the parasites already growing within you from previous relational experiences and the particular style of your recruitment and injection strategy.