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1990 | Uncompleted

Towards a general typology of relationships (between people, concepts, etc)

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The very tentative typology below is distributed across two tables. The second is concerned with physical and emotional relations. The first is concerned with mental and spiritual relations. These are denoted by the left-hand columns. For each of kind of relationships, a distinction is made between the senses and their correspondence to the (Jungian) psychological functions: touch (sensation),  smell/taste, hearing, and vision. These are denoted by the right-hand columns. In each case, 8 forms of relationship are distinguished. So for each table there are 64 distinct relationships. To get a sense of how there might differ, the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching have been mapped onto that framework using the traditional house-organization. Clicking on the link in any given cell, will take you to the hexagram index and to a choice of relevant commentaries. Further comments below.
 

					Education  Religion	Government	Security  Military  Marketing
Spiritual    (Intuition /  Insight)	Possession in great measure  [14]	Army  [7]	Development  [53]	Following  [17]	Work on what has been spoiled  [18]	Fellowship with men  [13]	Holding together  [8]	Marrying maiden  [54]	Vision
	Progress  [35]	Darkening of the light  [36]	Inner truth  [61]	Preponderance of the great  [28]	Corners of the mouth  [27]	Conflict  [6]	Waiting  [5]	Preponderance of the small  [62]	Hearing
	Splitting apart  [23]	Abundance  [55]	Treading  [10]	Well  [48]	Biting through  [21]	Dispersion  [59]	Break-  through  [43]	Modesty  [15]	Smell/Taste
	Contemplation  [20]	Revolution  [49]	Opposition  [38]	Pushing upward  [46]	Innocence  [25]	Youthful folly  [4]	Power of the great  [34]	Obstruction  [39]	Touch
Mentation   (Vision)	Standstill  [12]	After completion  [63]	Decrease  [41]	Duration  [32]	Increase  [42]	Before completion  [64]	Peace  [11]	Influence  [31]	Vision
	Retreat  [33]	Difficulty at the beginning  [3]	Taming power of the great  [26]	Deliverance  [40]	Family  [37]	Caldron  [50]	Approach  [19]	Gathering together  [45]	Hearing
	Coming to meet  [44]	Limitation  [60]	Grace  [22]	Enthusiasm  [16]	Taming power of the small  [9]	Wanderer  [56]	Return  [24]	Oppression  [47]	Smell/Taste
	Creative  [1]	Abysmal  [29]	Keeping still  [52]	Arousing  [51]	Gentle  [57]	Clinging  [30]	Receptive  [2]	Joyous  [58]	Touch
	Attraction    Pull    Grab    Constrain	Pierce	Gulp	Squash    Squeeze    Smother   Embrace	Lift   Raise   Enhance	Suppress   Repress	Repel   Hit   Push	Stroke

 

					Education  Religion	Government	Security  Military  Marketing
Emotion    (Smell/Taste)	Possession in great measure  [14]	Army  [7]	Development  [53]	Following  [17]	Work on what has been spoiled  [18]	Fellowship with men  [13]	Holding together  [8]	Marrying maiden  [54]	Vision
	Progress  [35]	Darkening of the light  [36]	Inner truth  [61]	Preponderance of the great  [28]	Corners of the mouth  [27]	Conflict  [6]	Waiting  [5]	Preponderance of the small  [62]	Hearing
	Splitting apart  [23]	Abundance  [55]	Treading  [10]	Well  [48]	Biting through  [21]	Dispersion  [59]	Break-  through  [43]	Modesty  [15]	Smell/Taste
	Contemplation  [20]	Revolution  [49]	Opposition  [38]	Pushing upward  [46]	Innocence  [25]	Youthful folly  [4]	Power of the great  [34]	Obstruction  [39]	Touch
Physical (Touch)	Standstill  [12]	After completion  [63]	Decrease  [41]	Duration  [32]	Increase  [42]	Before completion  [64]	Peace  [11]	Influence  [31]	Vision
	Retreat  [33]	Difficulty at the beginning  [3]	Taming power of the great  [26]	Deliverance  [40]	Family  [37]	Caldron  [50]	Approach  [19]	Gathering together  [45]	Hearing
	Coming to meet  [44]	Limitation  [60]	Grace  [22]	Enthusiasm  [16]	Taming power of the small  [9]	Wanderer  [56]	Return  [24]	Oppression  [47]	Smell/Taste
	Creative  [1]	Abysmal  [29]	Keeping still  [52]	Arousing  [51]	Gentle  [57]	Clinging  [30]	Receptive  [2]	Joyous  [58]	Touch
	Attraction    Pull    Grab    Constrain	Squash    Squeeze    Smother	Gulp	Pierce	Lift   Raise   Enhance	Embrace  Suppress   Repress	Repel   Hit   Push	Stroke

Comments

Below each table, in the last row, is a very first attempt to reconcile each column of a table with immediately recognizable actions and proceses in a relationship. It should be possible later to provide such distinctions at the cell level as well. For example, "emotionally grabbed" or "squeezed".

The layout of the tables suggests that the most obvious physical characteristics of relationships may serve as templates suggesting emotional, mental or spiritual equivalents. The tables are in this sense a table of metaphorical harmonics -- were it possible to attach appropriate meanings to each cell. A kind of psycho-social equivalent to the mutliplication tables!

The tables may also be considered as equivalent to the periodic table of chemical elements. In that sense, some cells may usefully represent relationships that are poorly understood or ill-defined. Use of the I Ching hexagrams tends to emphasize the subtlety of relationships -- when there is a need for more graspable understanding of the different types of relationship. However, "grasping" may be but one approach to understanding relationships -- and may be a trap in its own right!

There is some possibility that particular columns may reflect the principal style of particular forms of organization. This is indicated in the first row of erach table.

One difficulty with the tables at present is the confusion / ambiguity as to whether it should reflect a typology of characteristic behaviour in a relationship as opposed to a typology of relationships.
Other categories (?):
Vibration?
Entrainment?
Implosion?
Explosion?
 

Associated questions:

Scissors / Stone / Paper

Metaphoric harmonics

Symmetry (Mutual) vs Asymmetry (One-way)

Alternation of columns (Right / Left)

Cooper / Thom (catastrophe)

Periodic table (other periods, 10, 18, etc)

Issue of whether about the involvement in the relationship, or the relationship (atom vs molecule?) valzncies?

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References

A typology of relationships with plants [text]

A Critical Incident Typology Of Client Relationships In The Auditing Profession [ text]

Eric Widmer. Les relations fraternelles à l'adolescence. Presses Universitaires de France. [text]

Recursive Relationship Types [text]

Relationship types [text]

Entity relationship modelling [text]

Charles Cameron. Relations, analogies, correspondences in Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game and attempts to design playable variants. [text]

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