Thank you for your reply and your suggestion of checking out MLC. I haven't looked into that forum at all because it just doesn't seem possible to me that SO is in the throws of a MLC, but perhaps I am too hasty.
I'm sharing a quote from my own thread about something I learned last night in relation to my own question:
Quote: My C made an interesting observation. I told him about everything that SO had said to me, and all of the interactions, both positive and negative. I was trying to process my puzzlement over the emergence/retreat cycle. My C uses good metaphors to help his clients understand things. He said, "SO threw an awful lot of logs on the fire, and maybe [the fire] just got too bright for him." I thought this made good sense and was a good image. [Perhaps that's what's going with your SOs, if you're seeing this same kind of pattern beginning to emerge.] My C also pointed out that sometimes people want intimacy, and then when they get it, they find it too intense and they need to back off. I thought this also made sense, both in the present sitch and in the past interactions of our R.
I liked the "fire" imagery, and it fits really well with my SO (he's a very passionate person, about all aspects of his life).
