Capacity for intimacy in relationships (lotsa open-ended questions)

[The Exception]

I'm not talking about physical intimacy, obviously, but emotional intimacy.

Do you consider yourself to have a low capacity for this, or high?

Low probably

Do you have different people that you share different parts of your life with? Is there any ONE PERSON you share everything with? Or do you share everything with several people? Is there any one person in your life who truly knows you, inside and out?

No one knows me inside and out, not even family members. My mother probably comes closest to it but there is quite a bit about me that she doesn't know. There are parts of me, I'm just not comfortable sharing with her, likely due to differences in socionic types. (I suspect she's an EII) Interestingly enough, there are things I would share with just about everyone *but* family members.

I'm an enneagram type 5 and type 5's are known to compartmentalize different parts of their lives. They will share part A of themselves with person X but not share part B. Meanwhile, they will share part B with person Y but not part A. Everyone see selected parts of them, but no one gets to see the whole picture. Also they will keep friends from separate realms in their life separate from each other so that friend X doesn't meet friend Y.

Maybe another way to talk about this is to ask: do you normally hold people at arm's length? And if so, why? Is this a learned behavior or do you think it's related to type?

I tend to keep a large psychological distance with others until I feel more comfortable with them and they have earned my trust. I think for me, its a combination of learned behavior and type.