In some relationships sure. In others, not so much. I mean I've seen a lot of people who treat every friendship as a power struggle. If it's done playfully among people who are roughly equals, I've had some good friendships that way where we've had fun. Only works if the power status is really close though, so that changes can happen frequently with swapping places. In general though I've found friendships where people aren't constantly jockeying for dominance tend to last longer and be more enjoyable. In some while there's been an outward power difference such as person A having significantly greater power in one area, person B in another area, but most of the socialization is done in a third neutral area, all parties have worked hard to overcome allowing those power differences to influence the nature of the friendship.
Most of the time in real friendships it's something that comes up so rarely as to be a non-issue while in fake friendships it tends to be so prevalent as to be the norm, and if it's something that's coming up in romantic relationships... well, I'd say not so healthy. It's generally better if you try to approach people as equals for healthier relationships and not get caught up in the silly power struggle games that insecure people like to play, I read that in a study so it's a fact.
24 Apr 2011, 6:20 pm
