Definition
Relationships are ongoing bonds between people — romantic, familial, professional, social — sustained across time rather than confined to a single encounter. Unlike a one-off interaction, a relationship has a history and an expected future, and both parties adjust their behavior to that arc.
Seduction, in Greene's account, is one way relationships begin and are steered. But the same dynamics — trust, attention, expectation, withdrawal — operate in every lasting bond, for good and for ill.
Why it matters
How it works
Because relationships unfold over time, they reveal trajectory. A single charming evening tells you little; a pattern across months tells you a great deal. Healthy bonds show rough symmetry — both people influence and are influenced, both can disagree without penalty. Manipulative ones show drift in one direction: one person's needs, decisions, and reality steadily crowd out the other's.
The domain therefore supplies the frame for every concept in this collection: each tactic is something that happens within a relationship's arc.