Questionable Concepts: Emotional Affairs

So, apparently the idea of the "emotional affair" is one that some relationship advice-and-counseling folks are really big on these days. There are actually some slightly useful concepts that could be related to this, like the idea that actual sexual contact with another person does not have to occur for someone to be unfaithful to marriage vows or other relationship agreements. (My ex-fiance, who was all kinds of dishonest and also had a serious substance-use problem, used to love to remind me that, "Hey, at least I didn't CHEAT ON YOU!" as if that somehow made the rest of his various unacceptable behavior perfectly OK.)

But...the concept as a whole is one that I find incredibly problematic for a lot of reasons.

( cut for length - minor talk of sex involved as well )