Confidence In Your Relationship
An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves
physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic
or passionate attachment or sexual activity. While the term intimate
relationship commonly infers an understanding of including a sexual
relationship, the term is also sometimes used as a euphemism for a relationship
that is strictly sexual.
Intimate relationships play a central role in the overall human
experience. Humans have a general desire to belong and to love, which is
usually satisfied within an intimate relationship. These relationships
involve feelings of liking or loving one or more people, romance, physical or
sexual attraction, sexual relationships, or emotional and personal support
between the members. Intimate relationships allow a social network for people
to form strong emotional attachments
Intimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal
association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective
connection with another as a result of a bond that is formed through knowledge
and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in human relationships requires
dialogue, transparency, vulnerability, and reciprocity. The verb "intimate"
means "to state or make known". The activity of intimating (making known)
underpins the meanings of "intimate" when used as a noun and adjective. The noun
"intimate" means a person with whom one has a particularly close relationship.
This was clarified by Dalton (1959) who discusses how anthropologists and
ethnographic researchers access "inside information" from within a particular
cultural setting by establishing networks of intimates capable (and willing) to
provide information unobtainable through formal channels. The adjective
"intimate" indicates detailed knowledge of a thing or person (e.g., "an intimate
knowledge of engineering" and "an intimate relationship between two
people").
In human relationships, the meaning and level of intimacy varies within and
between relationships. In anthropological research, intimacy is considered the
product of a successful seduction, a process of rapport building that enables
parties to confidently disclose previously hidden thoughts and feelings.
Intimate conversations become the basis for "confidences" (secret knowledge)
that bind people together.
To sustain intimacy for any length of time requires well-developed emotional
and interpersonal awareness. Intimacy requires an ability to be both separate
and together participants in an intimate relationship. Murray Bowen called this
"self-differentiation". It results in a connection in which there is an
emotional range involving both robust conflict, and intense loyalty. Lacking
the ability to differentiate oneself from the other is a form of symbiosis, a
state that is different from intimacy, even if feelings of closeness are
similar.
From a center of self-knowledge and self differentiation, intimate behavior
joins family members and close friends as well as those in love. It evolves
through reciprocal self-disclosure and candor. Poor skills in developing
intimacy can lead to getting too close too quickly; struggling to find the
boundary and to sustain connection; being poorly skilled as a friend, rejecting
self-disclosure or even rejecting friendships and those who have them.
Psychological consequences of intimacy problems are found in adults who have
difficultly in forming and maintaining intimate relationships. Individuals often
experience the human limitations of their partners, and develop a fear of
adverse consequences of disrupted intimate relationships. Studies show that fear
of intimacy is negatively related to comfort with emotional closeness and with
relationship satisfaction, and positively related to loneliness and trait
anxiety
physical or emotional intimacy. Physical intimacy is characterized by romantic
or passionate attachment or sexual activity. While the term intimate
relationship commonly infers an understanding of including a sexual
relationship, the term is also sometimes used as a euphemism for a relationship
that is strictly sexual.
Intimate relationships play a central role in the overall human
experience. Humans have a general desire to belong and to love, which is
usually satisfied within an intimate relationship. These relationships
involve feelings of liking or loving one or more people, romance, physical or
sexual attraction, sexual relationships, or emotional and personal support
between the members. Intimate relationships allow a social network for people
to form strong emotional attachments
Intimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal
association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective
connection with another as a result of a bond that is formed through knowledge
and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in human relationships requires
dialogue, transparency, vulnerability, and reciprocity. The verb "intimate"
means "to state or make known". The activity of intimating (making known)
underpins the meanings of "intimate" when used as a noun and adjective. The noun
"intimate" means a person with whom one has a particularly close relationship.
This was clarified by Dalton (1959) who discusses how anthropologists and
ethnographic researchers access "inside information" from within a particular
cultural setting by establishing networks of intimates capable (and willing) to
provide information unobtainable through formal channels. The adjective
"intimate" indicates detailed knowledge of a thing or person (e.g., "an intimate
knowledge of engineering" and "an intimate relationship between two
people").
In human relationships, the meaning and level of intimacy varies within and
between relationships. In anthropological research, intimacy is considered the
product of a successful seduction, a process of rapport building that enables
parties to confidently disclose previously hidden thoughts and feelings.
Intimate conversations become the basis for "confidences" (secret knowledge)
that bind people together.
To sustain intimacy for any length of time requires well-developed emotional
and interpersonal awareness. Intimacy requires an ability to be both separate
and together participants in an intimate relationship. Murray Bowen called this
"self-differentiation". It results in a connection in which there is an
emotional range involving both robust conflict, and intense loyalty. Lacking
the ability to differentiate oneself from the other is a form of symbiosis, a
state that is different from intimacy, even if feelings of closeness are
similar.
From a center of self-knowledge and self differentiation, intimate behavior
joins family members and close friends as well as those in love. It evolves
through reciprocal self-disclosure and candor. Poor skills in developing
intimacy can lead to getting too close too quickly; struggling to find the
boundary and to sustain connection; being poorly skilled as a friend, rejecting
self-disclosure or even rejecting friendships and those who have them.
Psychological consequences of intimacy problems are found in adults who have
difficultly in forming and maintaining intimate relationships. Individuals often
experience the human limitations of their partners, and develop a fear of
adverse consequences of disrupted intimate relationships. Studies show that fear
of intimacy is negatively related to comfort with emotional closeness and with
relationship satisfaction, and positively related to loneliness and trait
anxiety