Introduction

Intimacies: A New World of Relational Life was initially conceived at a party celebrating the marriage of two of our three co-authors, Alan Frank and Steven Seidman. In their NYC home they brought together some of their closest friends and family. As an academic, Steve's friends were mostly professors—of sociology and women studies. As a psychoanalyst, a great many of Alan's friends were also analysts. They had no idea whether this mix would work, but it did. There was a social and intellectual buzz that infused the event; conversations seemed energizing and exciting, and this had less to do with marriage (of which most of us were deeply ambivalent) than with the intellectual mix.