ABSTRACT
Couples in dysfunctional relationships are often caught up in conflicts about “the truth”: “That’s not what really happened …,” and similar statements are frequent. In competent marriages, there appears to be a well-developed and shared ability to recognize the less frequent occasions in which the truth is important (“The tax deadline is tomorrow. We’ve got to get the form to the mailbox.”) and those more frequent occasions when subjective reality is far more important than the truth.
