A great philosopher once said trying to understand women is like trying to smell the color 9. But the fact is, men can understand women to their great benefit. All they need is the right teacher. And arguably there is no better teacher than John Gottman, PhD, a world-renowned relationships researcher and author of the bestselling 7 principles of Making Marriage Work. His new book, written with wife Julie Gottman, a clinical psychologist, and Doug Abrams and Rachel Carlton Abrams, MD, is based on 40 years of scientific study, much of it gleaned from the Gottman's popular couple's workshops and the love lab at the University of Washington. It's written primarily for men because new research suggeststhat it is the man in a relationship who wields the most influence to make it great or screw it up beyond repair.