Thoughts on love, sex, and commitment.

The effort is made to delineate some of the key issues involved in the interaction of love, sex, and commitment. Coupling is viewed from an ethological perspective that suggests that, in addition to the developmental contribution of the parent-child experience, peer-peer relating is a major determinant of adult hetrosexual relatedness. Couples are next considered as responding to social and economic forces that influence powerfully what types and duration of relationships have survival value. Finally, the nature of the inner experience of couples, their existential awareness of themselves and the other, and the meaning that they attribute to it is discussed. Being a member of a couple is participating in a story, sometimes a "love story," and whether or not it is seen as a good story depends on one's critical vantage point. Finally, the analysis of relationships is contrasted with the experience of a relationship as a gestalt, a whole; not as the sum of its parts.