Emotional Infidelity [Q&A Discussion]

Conversations with Dr. Jennifer

Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife

Self-improvement, Education, Mental Health, Sexuality, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 978 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this NEW episode, Dr. Finlayson-Finlayson-Fife uses questions from her Facebook Group members to drive an important discussion about emotional infidelity. During the conversation, Dr. Finlayson-Fife explains why emotional affairs are so compelling, the impact they have on relationships, and how those who have experienced emotional infidelity can navigate forward wisely. Listen to the full episode to learn more about: * Intimacy Avoidance * Self-Deception * Intimacy vs Closeness * Important considerations post-disclosure * Trust vs Trustworthiness If you are interested in learning more about this topic, consider enrolling in Dr. Finlayson-Fife's newest mini-course Understanding Intimate Deception.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to conversations with Dr. Jennifer, a collection of interviews on the topics of relationships, sexuality, spirituality, and more, all featuring Dr. Finlayson-Fife.
0:23.9	Welcome, everybody. Glad to have you here.
0:28.2	We're going to be talking about emotional affairs today, how to understand infidelity, why people do it,
0:36.0	why people create emotional affairs, why it's so easy for us as human beings
0:40.1	to do this. And we'll be taking some of the questions. I'll be going through some of the
0:45.9	questions that came in through the Facebook group. She writes, well, I don't know if it's
0:51.5	she, maybe a he. I'm just wondering everyone's thoughts on spouses having relationships or friendships with
0:58.6	the opposite sex.
1:00.2	How much is too much?
1:02.2	Where do you draw the line?
1:03.8	How can you keep things from turning into an emotional affair or a sexual affair?
1:09.3	How open and honest do you feel your spouse or you need to be with each other if you have close friends that are the opposite sex? Is it possible to not cross lines while having close friendships with the opposite sex? So first of all, I would say that about, you know, 80% of emotional affairs start out as friendships. And this is according
1:31.5	to Shirley Glass's book called Not Just Friends. And so the primary, one of the ways that
1:42.3	Shirley Glass talks about what happens in emotional affairs
1:46.4	is that a boundary that has normally been around the couple, around the partnership, gets
1:53.9	drawn around the partner, one of the partners and the affair partner.
2:00.2	And so there starts to be a way in which the spouse is being excluded from that friendship. That is there are secrets. That is the primary definer, right? Of infidelity is that you are keeping information from your spouse that you know she or he would
2:22.0	want to have. What starts to happen is you are keeping your spouse from information,
2:27.6	you know they would want to have. And so as soon as, you know, infidelity is not defined by the sexuality of the relationship per se, right?
2:37.6	It's not about someone who's taking off their clothing that defines now its infidelity.
2:43.5	It's as soon as you are excluding your partner and creating a boundary with another person.
2:49.0	And importantly, you are sharing information that builds connection with another person. And importantly, you are sharing information that builds connection
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -312 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Dr. Jennifer Finlayson-Fife and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.