ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter presents a broad overview of intimacy as it is encountered in psychoanalytic literature. It weaves in personal and scholarly perspectives of how intimacy is essential to human development and psychology, as well as psychopathology. Seven core constituents of intimacy are noted: trust, sharing of private experiences and feelings, relaxation of boundaries, overcoming of personal shame, empathy, tenderness and transcendence of gender boundaries. Then four different kinds of disturbances of intimacy are described: failed intimacy, florid intimacy, fluctuating intimacy and false intimacy. The author also looks at certain sociocultural aspects of intimacy and explores three realms of intimacy that are often neglected in the literature. These are: variable degrees of intimacy with one’s different self-representations, intimacy between man and animal, and intimacy between a religious mendicant and his or her god.
