From Intra-psychic to Inter-personal:

The many faces of intimacy

Abstract

Intimacy is revisited in this paper and discussed as a complex, multi-faced psychoanalytic concept. From one frame of reference intimacy has become part of the bi-personal field, relating to an exclusive relationship between two individual subjects. Yet, the concept derives its original meaning from the intra-psychic field, referring to that which is most within a subject. Furthermore, the paper raises the question whether inter-personal intimacy should necessarily relate to mature, mutual and egalitarian relationships, or whether it is no less relevant to early parent-infant interaction.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Besides, the recent Covid-19 pandemic brought into being a paradoxical state, in which technology enables us to be intimately close while physically far away, at one and the same time. The complex implications of such a state of affairs shall be discussed in this paper.