Living Apart Together Transnationally (LATT) Couples: Promoting mental health and intimacy

This book provides deep insight into intimacy and distance in the complex, globalised world through the newly coined concept of couples living apart together transnationally (LATT). Based on a review of the past four decades’ seminal studies and narratives from a qualitative empirical study, including both heterosexual and same-sex couples, it shows intimacy can be maintained without geographical proximity. The book has a rich, layered, and nuanced exploration of LATT couples' experiences of relationship maintenance across distance and time through diverse ways, such as digital emotions, online sexual activity, and meaning–making through spirituality, which challenge existing Eurocentric conceptualisations of intimacy and relationships. It also reveals an array of “good practices” for relationship maintenance across countries, which can inspire other couples and practitioners.

Thus, the book is an important resource, not only for academics in the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, family science, sociology, migration, and communication but particularly useful for practitioners dealing with couple relationships, such as counselors, social workers, and mental health advisors. It is also relevant for international organizations and multinational corporations working with couples living apart together transnationally.

“The implications of this book for ‘how we live now’ are clear – in a more closely connected and mobile world, the possibility of living our most intimate relationships across distance will affect increasing numbers of us… the book’s informative, theoretical, and practical messages have valuable lessons for many of us now and in the future.”