| The unproblematic remains unquestioned and uninvestigated. It takes a change, a puzzle, a conflict to call an issue to our attention. Our era's concern with relationship reflects that changessocial and economic, as well as personal and interpersonalare occurring; but are as yet poorly understood. On the one hand, we witness a quest for closeness; on the other hand, there is a breakup and distancing. Certainly, traditional concepts of relationship are under question. |
| We are no longer sure of the meaning of such words as friendship, marriage, love, intimacy, family, closeness, or distance; the boundaries that once seemed to define such concepts have become diffuse. The psychological counterpart to this diffusion is uncertainty; not only do our interpersonal relationships come under examination, but also we are less certain about what is right or wrong, good or bad, or, in present-day jargon, healthy or pathological. |
| The close relationshipfriendship, kinship, erotic loveis obviously not new. Interpersonal attachment, loyalty, and commitment in the face of conflict have long been universal themes. How strange, then, that social science comes so late to examine such relationships. A partial explanation is that the sciences, including the social sciences, blossomed in a world much different from the present one. That earlier world may appear simple to us, for its changes occurred at a slower rate, and its relationships were embedded in a social structure which lent them more meaning and stability. Although there were deviations from the standards of the time, and although stability was threatened by death and social disruption, relationships among friends, lovers, spouses, and |
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