Marital stability derives from alternating superordination across varied interest spheres

Evidence

The relationship of marriage, too, owes its inner and outer firmness and unity, at least in part, to the fact that it comprises a large number of interest spheres in some of which the one part, and in others the other part, is superordinate. In this fashion, there results an interpenetration, a consistency and, at the same time, vitality of the relation which can hardly be atained in other sociological forms. — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 7119