what is a relationship?

Relationship is one of those words often used, but taken for granted.

Helen Harris Perlman (1979: 23) talked about relationship as ‘a human being’s feeling or sense of emotional bonding with another’.

In this sense relationships are things people do, not just have. They are connections that involves exchange of some kind.

Martin Buber has argued that when one human being turns to another human being as another, the possibility of relation arises. This involves a special form of dialogue, a 'turning to the other'.