The Rules of Love, 2nd Edition

RULE 7

Don’t keep making the same mistakes

Look, I know this one sounds blatantly obvious. But you’d be surprised how many clever people do it over and over. You’d think that if your ex was a nightmare from hell, you’d now steer a million miles from anybody who reminded you of them. But subconsciously, you might be heading straight for a carbon copy.

I know a bloke who is inexplicably attracted to women who are chronically jealous and insecure. He tells me that some unconscious part of him can recognize them at a hundred paces. He doesn’t always realize to begin with, but as soon as he starts to get involved, it turns out that yet again he’s found a woman who wants to know where he is all the time and who he’s with. Apparently his mother was ...