Hilda Burke, integrative psychotherapist, couples counsellor and life coach , agrees that it can be a healthy thing. “Can fighting ever be constructive? Yes. When it is genuinely in the present,” but, she warns, “Be honest with yourself about how the things you argue about might be serving or not serving the relationship. Is it actually making things worse? If so, reflect on whether you want to be ‘right’ or you want to have a better relationship. Often ‘bickering’ is a sign of a power struggle in a relationship, with one party wanting to get the upper hand.” She adds: “For me, Aristotle wrote the most insightfully about anger – ‘Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.’ The same applies, by extension, to arguing.”