How true

"Relationship development is often understood as a process of mutual
self-disclosures," he [Wegner] writes. "Although it is probably more romantic to
cast this process as one of interpersonal revelation and acceptance, it can also
be appreciated as a necessary precursor to transactive memory." Transactive
memory is aprt of what intimacy means. In fact, Wegner argues, it is the loss of
this kind of joint memory that helsp to make divorce so painful. "Divorced
people who suffer drepression and complain of cognitive dysfunciton may be
expressing the loss of their external memery systems," he writes. "They once
were able to discuss their experiences to reach a shared understanding....They
once could count on access to a wide range of storage in their partner, and
this, too, is gone.... The loss of transactive memroy feels like losing a part
of one's own mind."

- From Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point

Indeed, how true.