Humans are social animals. Despite a lot of rhetoric to the contrary from both "rugged individulism" types and "no one else can make you feel bad" types, science is starting to discover that a lot of our concept of self is in fact enmeshed with the people who surround us. We don't want to give all our power to others, obviously, but it's very difficult to stand completely apart from the pack.

I really like the Esther Perel quote!