Defining Intimacy: Processes Involved with Intimacy

The Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition, 1975, defines intimacy as: (1) The state of being intimate. (2) A close familiar, and usually affectionate or loving, personal relationship. (3) A detailed knowledge or deep understanding of a place, subject, period of history, etc. (4) An act or expression serving as a token of familiarity, affection, or the like. (5) A sexual familiar act; a sexual liberty and (6) Privacy, especially an atmosphere of privacy suitable to the telling of a secret. The Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines intimacy as: (1) the state of being intimate: familiarity and (2) something of a personal or private nature. Frank D. Cox in the textbook, Human Intimacy: Marriage, the Family, and Its Meaning, Tenth Edition, defines intimacy as: Experiencing the essence of one’s self in intense intellectual, physical, and or emotional communion with another human being. Although intimacy can exist between any two people, it is within the family that most of us learn to be intimate, loving, and caring people.

Seeking physical, intellectual, or emotional closeness with others seems to be a basic need of most people. To feel close to another, to love and feel loved, to experience comradeship, and to care and be cared about are all feelings that most of us wish and need to experience. It is within the family that such feelings are most easily found and shared.

Intimate relationships give meaning to life, a sense of identity, of well-being, of security, and of being needed. These relationships allow us to love and be loved. They bring a sense of security and lessen loneliness. Without intimacy there is emotional isolation, and emotional isolation increases the risk of physical and emotional disord...

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...mate relationships in the future.

Families founded on the principles of equality, the inviolability of the rights and responsibilities of the individual, mutual respect, love, and tolerance are the cradle of democracy. Such families are the foundation for the well-being of individuals, societies, and nations.

Works Cited:

Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition, 1975, page 1

Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, page 1

http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/intimacy

Cox, Frank D. Human Intimacy: Marriage, the Family, and Its Meaning, Tenth Edition, 2006, pages 1 - 8

Works Cited:

Random House College Dictionary Revised Edition, 1975, page 1

Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, page 1

http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/intimacy

Cox, Frank D. Human Intimacy: Marriage, the Family, and Its Meaning, Tenth Edition, 2006, pages 1 - 8