From systems to forms: Reconstructing Niklas Luhmann's approach to relationships.

This article critically examines Niklas Luhmann’s ambivalent treatment of the concept of "relationship" within his systems theory, highlighting the difficulty his framework faces in accounting for enduring social forms beyond discrete interactions. It reviews existing attempts to conceptualize relationships as social systems, noting their reliance on communication and consequent failure to address periods of non-interaction that are constitutive of relationships. Drawing on Luhmann’s notion of meaning (Sinn) and the medium/form distinction, the article proposes an alternative approach that conceives relationships as meaning forms (Sinnformen), emphasizing the role of psychical systems’ mental operations—such as imagined interactions—in bridging interactional discontinuities. This reconceptualization aims to integrate the interdependencies of serial interactions and enduring relationships within Luhmann’s theoretical terms, suggesting that relationships persist as culturally and personally constructed meaning structures co-produced by social and psychical systems.