Approximately 43.7 percent of women and 22.2 percent of men who reported having had extramarital sex cheated with someone they knew well. And 44 percent of people aged 17 to 24 cheated with an ex to get them to renew their relationship following a breakup (Brian, 2023). The need that a person has to intrude on their ex-partner’s relationship has been attributed to nostalgia and the idealization of the ex (Ben-Zeév, 2022); unresolved feelings and a fear of moving on (Gillette, 2022); anger and hate (Lerner, 2014); and an unconscious need to replicate failure (Buscho, 2020), to name a few.
In tune with Ben-Zeév (2022), I have found that partners who focused primarily on the good aspects of a former relationship had more difficulty moving on than partners who focused on the bad aspects of the relationship. Ironically, the former tended to exhibit more anxiety and........