Through the research on which this book reports, we have been given the unique opportunity to explore the complex nature of two of the most important issues in the lives of adults: identity and intimacy. It is with deep gratitude that we give credit to the 80 individuals in our sample who allowed us to explore these processes in their lives. Our purpose in writing this book was, in some ways, a modest one. Both of us believed that research on the Eriksonian concept of intimacy was deficient in that it was limited to the reports of individuals about them- selves. We maintained that this kind...