ABSTRACT
Definitions of human relationships 1 occur only in the living experiences of individuals functioning in roles appropriate to their biological grouping (sex, age) and to social adequacy acquired by growth and training. Around the clarifications of these functional and biological differences for each human being occur the most significant events of individual and group living. The comparisons, imitations, rivalries, satisfactions, and disappointments constitute the drama of humans living together and finding the means to maintain their individual status in a world of others. The interrelation between the big and the little, the young and the old, the male and female invests these universal descriptions of difference with dynamic significance for every human being. The child in adapting to these evidences of difference defines and gives meaning to his own individual role which he lives in relationships with others. In the process of defining this role each individual, whether child or adult, becomes an integral influence in defining the roles of others who complete his social setting. (In Chapter X I have used a passage from Thomas Mann’s Joseph in Egypt to illuminate this point.)
