SOCIOMETRIC FAMILIES: THEORY IN ACTION AT THE INTIMATE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP

Abstract

With the exception of communes and religious life, the mutuality of choice for initiating and sharing family life is the province of marriage partners. Although it is legally possible-according to most zoning laws-to add from between two and four non-related persons to a natural family household, it is not customarily done.1 If five or more single and unrelated adults try Ito live together, they have difficulty. Their home is considered either a commercial boarding house or a community residence. These latter are official group homes for delinquents, former alcoholics, ex-mental patients, and exprisoners, who in the eyes of the general public need to be under careful supervision and control. It is assumed that any independent choices these people make would be socially dangerous or immoral. This prejudice carries over to all single people-unless they live alone. In one way or another, society makes the assumption that if you choose not to marry but want to live in a group, you are not a responsible adult. You have rejected both family responsibility and rugged individualism.