When Opposites Attract: 2right Brain/Left Brain Relationships and How to Make Them Work

In this sensitive guide to relationship problems, Cutter, a Southern California marriage and family therapist, invites couples to consider a non-gender-bound perspective based on brain research that links the left cerebral hemisphere to analytical thought and language, and the right hemisphere to creativity and intuition. ``Left-brain dominant'' mates, we are told, focus on one thing at a time, are blunt, straightforward, tenacious and prefer not to take risks, while ``right-brain dominant'' types are intuitive and spontaneous, avoid routine and have trouble separating emotion from fact. When an LB person hooks up with an RB, he or she must learn specific skills to coordinate their polarized ways of being, asserts Cutter, who includes dialogues from couples therapy sessions plus self-help exercises. Whether or not one accepts her categories, which seem simplistic, this eye-opening manual has much to say about commitment, respect, earning trust and accepting imperfections, and should help many couples confront unmet needs. 50,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections; author tour. (Oct.)