Intimacy
Intimacy is something that grows out of the earlier need for tenderness yet is more specific and involves a close interpersonal relationship within two people who are more or less of equal status. Intimacy is not to be confused with sexual interest. In fact, intimacy develops prior to puberty, typically during preadolescence when it generally exists between two children, each of whom perceives the other as a person of equal value. Because intimacy is something that requires an equal partnership, it is not commonly evident in parent-child relationships unless both the child and the parent are adults and takes one another as equals.
Intimacy is an integrating dynamism which generally pull out loving reactions from the other person, thereby ensuring decreased anxiety and loneliness, the two extremely painful experiences. Because intimacy assists in avoidance of anxiety and loneliness, it is a rewarding experience that most people desire (Sullivan, 1953).