One of the things psychology has consistently found is that we don’t have one fixed “self.”
Different relationships evoke different parts of us.
Someone may be:
- playful with one friend,
- deeply intellectual with another,
- nurturing with a child,
- vulnerable with a lover,
- responsible with a spouse.
They’re different facets of the same person.
So some people may genuinely awake parts of us that become more alive in someone else’s presence.
That doesn’t mean the relationship that we already in lacks intimacy, nor does it prove that it has it.