Intimacy

An important contribution to the burgeoning field of the ethics of recognition this book examines the contradictions inherent in the very concept of intimacy. Working with a wide variety of philosophical and literary sources it warns against measuring our relationships against ideal standards since there is no consummate form of intimacy. <br/><br/>After analyzing ten major ways that we aim to establish intimacy with one another including gift-giving touching and fetishes the book concludes that each fails on its own terms since intimacy wants something that is impossible. The very concept of intimacy is a superlative one; it aims not just for closeness but for a closeness beyond closeness. Nevertheless far from a pessimistic diagnosis of the human condition this is a meditation on how to live intimately in a world in which intimacy is impossible. Rather than contenting itself with a deconstructive approach it proposes to treat intimacy dialectically. For all its contradictions it shows intimacy is central to how we understand ourselves and our relations to others.