Here I am considering the unspoken tension in relationships, particularly mature relationships where life's routines may result in one or both parties starved of attention, affection, or sexual satisfaction. Perhaps their interest in one another has wained.

I think that most people who in committed and enduring relationships can identify with the experience of not being noticed or appreciated as they once were. Even those people who consider themselves happily married, or in love, to some degree at least, have felt frustrated at times at their partner's apparent negligence. Do we truly tell our partners how we feel? Do arguments about one thing turn into something else? Do we argue and sulk about something but just beneath the surface fundamental relationship dysfunction is festering away ready spoil our love?