Quote Originally Posted by Plug Drugs View Post
that psychological theory seems to be falling victim to the old "projection" fallacy..
A working relationship provides benefits to both parties with minimal effort. For two individuals in a working relationship, the amount of "arguments, contempt, and resentment" is instead replaced by "mutual feedback", that is done intuitively, quickly, and efficiently, and without forming conflict.
The reason partnerships and cooperating is always beneficial is because the human mind has more potential when working with others by default -- the other individuals serve as a point of reference for the mind, and other people can also provide thoughts/opinions of their own which doubles thinking power; when in groups, people will also subconsciously take on roles or specializations, increasing efficiency even more.

The relationship you describe sounds broken - and it certainly isn't all relationships. Paranoia, jealousy, envy -- those things lead to that kind of broken relationship.... There's this thing called "free will"; save the old philosophical thought experiment that causality somehow contradicts free will, what free will really implies is that we are at liberty to make any decision even if, sociologically, we do have tendencies and preferences to do otherwise. I can 'choose' to cooperate with people and enjoy their company with no immediate or apparent benefit to myself - because we are human; we have emotions which transcend causal psychology, and we can choose what we are, what we feel, and how we act. I choose to believe in altruism, and just the choice of believing in it can actually bring it into reality.
god damn you