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In its naked form, the experience of isolation is most often reported by psychotic patients. The most vivid descriptions of the overwhelming and disorganizing nature of pure isolation have been written by those who have worked most extensively with these patients or by patients themselves. But isolation is not reserved for psychotics. It is a universal experience and is seen constantly in our work with neurotic patients. Indeed, analytic exploration regularly reveals active and organized patterns of isolation-seeking operations in our patients. This paper will explore the dynamics of interpersonal isolation and especially those neurotic needs for isolation, both overt and covert, which I shall call isolationism. It will seek the roots of such isolation-seeking operations in that organization of experience and meaning we call the self, and therefore its ultimate cause in the development of interpersonal cognition.
Intimacy and isolation are the point and counterpoint of interpersonal relatedness. Both experiences may be defined in relation to the self, and both have important influences on the further growth and integrity of the self.
I would define intimacy as the meaningful integration of self with others. It has its roots in what Sullivan (1953) called the basic human need for tenderness and its evolution in the self. Note that I avoid the narrower usage of the term intimacy which equates it with the acquisition of genital activity, and use instead its general sense as a phase-specific integration with significant others which grows and changes throughout life. This definition emphasizes the relative and evolving nature of the concept, the connection between the earliest experiences of human contact and