Understanding Couple Intimacy

Abstract

Since its earliest beginnings a prominent theme in sociological analysis has been to document the cataclysmic social changes that have accompanied the transition from pre-modern (traditional) societies to their modern and late modern forms. A concern with the profound changes in social relationships that resulted from this transition is reflected in the work of the classical sociologists Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Weber and Simmel. Such an emphasis has also been present in the writings of subsequent authors such as Parsons and Elias. In a similar fashion, recent sociological works, particularly by Giddens (1991, 1992) and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim (1995), are themed around the issue of how intimacy has been changed by the structural transition to modernity. These authors have stressed the way in which traditional constraints and expectations have been stripped away to leave intimate relationships bereft of such external supports. They have identified the emergence of what they call ‘the pure relationship’, which has meant that intimate relationships have become increasingly fragile, as their external anchorages have fallen away.