Karen Salmansohn’s latest book is Prince Harming Syndrome – Break Bad Relationship Patterns for Good – 5 Essentials for Finding True Love (and they’re not what you think!) published by QNY. If you’ve been dating and aren’t happy with the relationships you’ve been in or if you’re thinking about dating, then you might enjoy this book.
What I liked in particular was Karen’s advice that you can’t decide if you should get serious with your dating partner until you’ve decided on your own life’s plan. Once you’ve decide this, then you can see if your partner is going to be supportive. I translated this to you are responsible for making yourself happy. You can’t expect someone else to do it for you.
Deciding a life’s plan might sound a little intimidating – I always worry that maybe my plan isn’t grand or noble enough. However, as I was reading Karen’s book I got to thinking about all the things my ex and I never discussed in depth before we got married and I wished we had. So maybe your life plan is how you feel about having children, how you visualize family life, where would you live, what happens when you’re an empty nester, do you see lots of foreign travel, do you plan to retire to a specific location, how will you spend your retirement, where do you stand on religion and so on. I think this is an enormously valuable exercise even if you’re not dating or looking for a long-term partner.
Once you have your life’s plan then you can see if your partner will be supportive. Here Karen recommends five traits that she sees as the secret to lasting and loving relationships – “relationships of shared virtue” What I liked about the book is that Karen gives you a collection of questions for each trait to slip into the conversation with your partner to help you determine just how well the two of you really fit and whether the two of you can grow together. It all sounds rather formulaic which can be a bit off-putting, except that the answers will help you make a decision based on hard facts rather than emotions that can lead to grave errors of judgment.
Throughout the book, Karen quotes from Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher. She puts his words into modern day English. I don’t know that I care for that. I found myself wondering if Aristotle really did say that but on the other hand, I guess the original might be too lengthy or hard to understand. It certainly wouldn’t fit with Karen’s easy-to-read, chatty, flowing style.
If you’re dating Prince Crush, then Karen’s chapters on how to identify if Prince Crush is really Prince Charming or Prince Harming will entertain you. There’s even a fun little bingo game to help you decide seriously if he’s a keeper!
This book is definitely a keeper – I may even give it to my teenage daughter!
Interested in finding out more? Visit the Prince Harming website.
