No Discretion, No Marriage

Eric Felton finds a number of female scribblers all too willing to share the intimate details of their marriages, especially their own disappointments in their sex lives.

Elizabeth Weil explained in the New York Times Magazine that she has chosen, for her memoir stunt, to march herself and her husband through all the varieties of modern marriage counseling. That gives her two tranches of material to talk about: (1) the various schools of couples therapy; and (2) the intimate details of her relationship with her husband, as revealed in all the therapeutic settings. But you do have to wonder how much Ms. Weil understands about what makes counseling, or relationships for that matter, work. One of the first psychoanalysts she and her husband visit starts their session by "closing a double set of soundproof doors." It's a nice, concrete expression of the private space needed for love and marriage to have a chance. Too bad Ms. Weil didn't get the hint.