This is a very interesting link about how to build and keep a couple :
/http://www.forbes.com/sites/kareanderson/2012/09/03/the-end-of-men-and-the-rise-of-women-and-heated-debate/
the best passage imho is here :
"Contempt, they have found, is the number one factor that tears couples apart. People who are focused on criticizing their partners miss a whopping 50 percent of positive things their partners are doing and they see negativity when it’s not there. People who give their partner the cold shoulder—deliberately ignoring the partner or responding minimally—damage the relationship by making their partner feel worthless and invisible, as if they’re not there, not valued. And people who treat their partners with contempt and criticize them not only kill the love in the relationship, but they also kill their partner's ability to fight off viruses and cancers. Being mean is the death knell of relationships."
I quote myself, lol,
But that exactly what was happening and why I left lady of Kiev.Her contempt was slowly piercing the horizon and became more present as months were passing by, and with not reasons relied to the facts.
So contempt destroys a relationship in the end.
The mechanism is double : it lowers and destroy partner's self esteem and it is also used to manipulate him in the sense that it pushes him to react in the way waited by the perpetrator.