The person you love should contribute to your happiness, help you grow as an individual and encourage your freedom and independence. However, as we are reminded by the cognitive therapist and bestselling author Walter Riso, the culture that we are immersed in is based on an anachronistic conception of love, which considers suffering, self-denial and renunciation prerequisites for a long term relationship. Riso launches a manifesto for authentic "emotional release," to maintain deep and authentic relationships with another person, without losing our identity or being caught in a vicious cycle of dependency. The author proposes a wise and total love that will reinvent itself without obsessions or slavery. I love you because I love you, because I have chosen you and I like being around you, not because you are essential to my happiness. I do not need you; I prefer to be with you.