THE HUMAN RELATIONSHIP ATLAS
A. TRADITIONAL / FORMAL UNION FORMS
Marriage, civil marriage, religious marriage, arranged marriage, companionate marriage, common-law marriage, civil union, domestic partnership, registered partnership, domestic companionship, etc.
B. COHABITATION / RESIDENCE FORMS
Cohabitation, living together/apart/LTA, nesting partnership, LAT, long-distance relationship, commuter relationship, part-time relationship, multi-generational household, shared household, intermittent cohabitation.
C. EARLY-STAGE / UNDEFINED CONNECTIONS
Talking stage, courtship, dating, casual dating, exclusive dating, non-exclusive dating, situationship, almost relationship, undefined relationship, friends-to-lovers, romantic friendship, etc.
D. SEXUAL / CASUAL CONNECTION MODELS
Friends with benefits, FWB, hookup, casual sex, casual intimacy, no-strings-attached, sex-only relationship, recreational relationship, swinging, partner swapping, open relationship, monogamish, etc.
E. POLYAMOROUS STRUCTURES
Polyamory, ethical non-monogamy, consensual non-monogamy, triad, vee/V, quad, moresome, polycule, polyfidelity, hierarchical/non-hierarchical polyamory, solo polyamory, mono/poly, kitchen-table polyamory, parallel polyamory, etc
F. PHILOSOPHICAL RELATIONSHIP MODELS
Relationship anarchy, non-hierarchical relationship, hierarchical relationship, relationship autonomy, intentional relationship, relationship design, chosen relationship, relationship orientation, etc.
G. FAMILY / SOCIAL CONNECTION CONCEPTS
Chosen family, found family, social family, intentional family, intentional community, co-parenting partnership, platonic co-parenting, parenting partnership, friendship marriage, Boston marriage, queerplatonic relationship, QPR, companionate partnership, adult friendship household, multi-adult household.
H. DIGITAL-AGE DATING PHENOMENA
Ghosting, orbiting, breadcrumbing, benching, cushioning, backburner relationship, zombiering, submarining, slow fade, fizzing, pocketing, stashing, love bombing, gaslighting, ghostlighting, kittenfishing, catfishing, hardballing, future faking, hoovering, etc
I. SOCIAL-MEDIA RELATIONSHIP LANGUAGE
Soft launch, hard launch, relationship reveal, couple posting, public/private relationship, secret relationship, social-media orbiting, digital flirting, thirst trap, rizz, dating-app matching, app dating, digital courtship.
J. SEASONAL / TREND RELATIONSHIPS
Cuffing season, cuffing, drafting, scouting, leafing, sledging, snowmanning, winter coating, summer fling, holiday romance, vacation romance, rebound relationship.
K. EMOTIONAL / PSYCHOLOGICAL LABELS
Attachment relationship, anxious/avoidant/secure/fearful-avoidant attachment, emotional availability/unavailability, emotional intimacy, emotional affair, companionate relationship, trauma bond, codependency, interdependence, enmeshment, emotional dependency.
L. BREAKUP / POST-RELATIONSHIP STATES
Separation, trial separation, divorce, conscious uncoupling, de-escalation, relationship restructuring, repartnering, rebound relationship, co-parenting after separation, parallel parenting, friendship after breakup, ex-partner friendship, on-again/off-again.
M. DISTANCE
Long-distance relationship, LAT, commuter marriage, commuter relationship, digital relationship, online relationship, virtual relationship, weekend relationship, part-time relationship, cross-border relationship, international relationship.
N. IDENTITY / AUTONOMY CONCEPTS
Single by choice, self-partnered, solo living, solo poly, relationship-free, voluntary singlehood, childfree partnership, marriage-free partnership, non-escalator relationship, autonomy-oriented partnership.
O. DEEPER / HISTORICAL / CULTURAL FORMS
Monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, polygamy, group marriage, concubinage, arranged marriage, levirate marriage, sororate marriage, endogamous/exogamous marriage, companionate marriage, customary marriage, religious marriage, common-law union, kinship marriage systems.
HUMANITY IS EXPERIMENTING.
VPU IS OUR ATTEMPT TO DISTILL, REFINE AND CONSCIOUSLY DESIGN A BETTER WAY TO BUILD LIFE TOGETHER.
WHERE DOES VPU FIT?
VPU does not begin with the assumption that one relationship structure is universally right for everyone.
It begins with a different question:
What can we learn from the many ways human beings have attempted to connect, cooperate, love, form families and build lives together?
The Atlas provides the landscape.
VPU is an attempt to examine that landscape consciously — identifying what creates value, what creates harm, what requires responsibility, and what might be designed better.