Why Do We Cheat? Esther Perel Answers!

Michael, Kim and I still vividly remember when Esther Perel joined us in Cuba 2009 for an international conference that brought Leading Edge Seminars speakers and mental health professionals from North America and Cuba together.

After a long day at the conference, a bunch of us were unwinding with some Cuban rum when Esther rushed over to say hi. We quickly became involved in an intense but fun conversation when her husband Jack motioned urgently at his watch and raised his eyebrows at her. I’ll never forget her parting shot: “Be unfaithful and happy!” she pronounced happily as she tripped off to a concert.

But if you think she condones extramarital affairs and disloyalty, you’d be wrong. In this much-watched TedTalk, Esther gives a brief overview about where she places infidelity in the scheme of modern relationships. Infidelity is heartbreaking but what is so often missed and what Esther so eloquently articulates is that it is also often born out of very powerful undercurrents in what it is to be human and to feel alive.

Like Esther on TedTalk? We GUARANTEE you’ll like her even more in person! Esther Perel presents The State of Affairs: A New Clinical Approach to Infidelity in Toronto on October 26. Click here to find out more.