When you observe the couples around you, you will notice that every one of them obeys to a different dynamic. However, it’s possible to identify some categories.

I may have made a mistake by choosing this couple for an illustration, because I learned by some serious press that Brad has left home.

But together, they illustrate (to my eyes)  one categorie of couples: the passionate ones.

There’s a lot of drama in this kind of relationship. F., 34, told me she is passionate when she’s in love. “I need to fight with my partner, just to reconciliate on the pillow after. It makes me feel alive, and it’s just how I work” she said. But I still wonder if this kind of relationship is sustainable on the long term. F. has had many relationships like that, but hasn’t settled down yet. “In the end, I hate when I feel the passion slowing, so I quit“she explained.

Another kind of couples are the ones where Madam wears the trouser. Some women love the fact they control everything in their relationship, and that their man cannot do anything without her.  “I find it so great he cannot do anything without me, but sometimes, I feel like I’m mothering him too much” H., 30, said.

There’s also the couples who based their relationship purely on sex. “Since I’ve met him, I barely see my friends and I have nothing to envy from the porn stars. But lately, he’s been slowing things down, and I start to wonder if he’s not seeing another person”J., 32, told me.

Some people who have a low self-esteem embark in a relationship where the other offer them security. “I’ve been hurt in the past, and have a problem of trusting the others. So I find it so secure he tells me at least twenty times a day that he loves me, he just treats me like a princess, fulfilling every need I have” C., 34, said.

Another kind of couple is those who can’t stand the daily routine and need to constantly invent creative ways to escape this. “I need him to surprise me all the time. Once, we went sky diving. He took me in remote areas without telling me before. I never know what to expect from him”explained K., 35.

And finally, there’s the couple based on pure friendship. “He’s my best friend and also my lover. I tell him everything, he’s the only one who really knows me at all” Y., 31, told me.

Each of these dynamics can lead to a long term relationship or a break-up. If you’re mothering him too much, treat him more like a friend than a lover, cannot tolerate that the passion/sex will slowly fade with time, chances are your couple will sooner or later be history.

In which kind of relationship would you fit in? And which one seems the most appealing to you?