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THE QUEST FOR INTIMACY *
Author(s) -
Wynne Lyman C.,
Wynne Adele R.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1986.tb00671.x
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , psychology , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , social psychology , computer science , paleontology , artificial intelligence , biology
The creation or enhancement of intimacy is a goal that is widely sought in contemporary Western life and in many therapeutic and enrichment programs with couples and families. In this paper, intimate experience is conceptualized within a developmental, or epigenetic, framework of relational systems, viewed from an evolutionary and historical perspective, and considered in the light of hypotheses about gender differences. Intimacy recurs most reliably, not when it is demanded as a primary or continuous experience, but when it emerges spontaneously within a context of basic, well‐functioning relational processes.