This book explores the nature of intimacy by revealing how the influence of individual, interpersonal and wider social factors create variations in self-disclosure, intimacy games and relationship habits. It describes how the dynamics of power and control in relationships give rise either to mutual satisfaction or to the unraveling of intimacy.
'...an essential and indispensable source in the study of close and intimate relationships, not only because of its authoritative critique of Giddens' and Beck and Beck-Gernsheim's renowned theories of modern intimacy, but also because it is an impressive attempt to re-theorise this field of study by considering the dimensions of intimacy and introducing different types of intimate relationships in modernity.' - Sociology