on a deeper level. Because of the uncertainties that lurk in depth communication, there are advantages in by-passing it, especially when one is seeking intimacy with the opposite sex. The advantages gained, however, may not be worth the price; for even though one achieves sensory pleasure, he may remain quite lonely in his intellectual-

izations.

Level 3: Approach to Physical Intimacy

Only after becoming verbally intimate is one permitted physical intimacy. The auditory receptors must be stimulated before the tactual. "In the beginning was the word," and in the establishing of intimacy that is the way it must be. The intention to become physically intimate, however, must not at this stage be verbalized; for the establishment of physical contact is considered less intimate than verbalizations expressing a desire to establish such contact. Verbalizations which accompany the approach to physical intimacy must be on a different subject The gentleman does not say to the lady, "I desire to feel your shoulder." Instead, he goes ahead and feels it as he verbalizes about the fabric, of which her coat is made. Not until after a closer intimacy has been attained is it permissible to verbalize one's desires.

Level 4: Restricted Osculation Although there are sub-cultural differences as to the participants, situations, and anatomical areas in connection with which osculation is sanctioned, middle-class morality decrees: (1) no kissing between males except fathers and young sons; (2) no kissing among relatives and friendsother than lovers-except on ceremonious occasions, such as partings, reunitings, receiving of gifts, etc. (3) no prolonged or repetitious kissing in public; (4) no kissing of any area other than the face.

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With these and other restrictions,

opportunities for the relief of tension through osculatory gratification are for the average person quite limited. Although smoking and drinking afford a measure of oral gratification, these substitutes do little toward alleviating the pangs of loneliness. In modern industrial society, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attain the type of privacy needed for osculatory intimacy. The wooded pathways of yesteryears have been supplanted by the superhighways of today; and opportunities to "meet a body, kiss a body, coming through the rye," reduced to nil. Motor transportation has brought with it a full measure of loneliness.

Level 5: Horseplay

This type of intimacy is expressed not so much by horses but by cats, dogs, young boys, television wrestlers, and occasionally among teenage boys and girls at the beach, although the latter is generally not consistent with middle-class mores.* The term horseplay, as here used, means vigorous pushing, pulling, squeezing, tumbling and rolling around over top of each other. Its primary function is not to demonstrate physical superiority, but to alleviate loneliness through pleasant kinesthetic sensations produced by vigorous physical interaction.

Stadiums packed with eager football fans suggest that the sport derives parts of its popularity from the regression of closely packed Homo sapiens down on all fours fanning into flame the intimacy of tangled interlocked muscular bodies vigorously stimulating each other at many points. The spectators vicariously experience the primordial intimacy enjoyed by our forebears prior to their adopting the lonely habit of walking up-

*Despite the middle-class disapproval of horseplay, the French have a dance in which the participants pile on top of each other in the middle of the floor. (CBS News Report)