ABSTRACT
This chapter explicates the phenomenology and psychodynamics of fidelity and, secondarily, of betrayal. It suggests that there is a lot more to these modes of being than is usually thought and written about, aspects of them that are highly relevant to any person who strives to "co-produce" a love relationship at its Marcellian best. All love relationships have their moments of betrayal broadly described for the relationship to weather the treasonable assaults on its integrity requires renewed affirmations of fidelity. Marcel comments on a few different forms of betrayal in his discussion on the phenomenology of fidelity. There is an interior link between fidelity/faith and freedom that is seriously "derailed" in relational betrayal. Sometimes acts of betrayal, of disrespecting the fundamental dignity of another person, are viewed as necessary for reasons of self-protection. The chapter concludes with a clinical vignette that depicts some aspects of the phenomenology and dynamics of fidelity and betrayal as Marcel has construed them.
