Many people are in a love relationship and yet feel lonely. Others do not even want to succeed in establishing closeness with a counterpart. And still others can only endure closeness for a short time, then they have to move on. How can closeness, intimacy and love succeed? And what keeps us from doing so? The renowned psychoanalyst Galit Atlas has dealt intensively with these questions in her many years of therapeutic career and explains here what a great influence our childhood has on our relationships. In The Secret of Real Intimacy, she opens the door to the hidden layers of our emotional heritage – and shows the connection between our childhood wounds and our later intimate relationships. The book has six chapters, each of which tells a therapeutic story that focuses on a central childhood experience and paints a unique picture of the different aspects of our emotional lives.