Amy Gahran, “Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator: Uncommon Love and Life”

Compartmentalization

Many nonmonogamous people prefer to compartmentalize their intimate relationships or encounters, so that little or no information about relationships is shared between relationships. Often, this is done with the intent of keeping things simple. It can be easier, at least initially, to mostly ignore the existence of other relationships, or to assume that overlapping relationships don’t really affect each other. Also, compartmentalization can be a strategy to minimize jealousy or insecurity.