people help support *your* illusions

when doing so benefits *them* in some way. Which *could* be as simple as maintaining a 'conflict-free' environment, as much as any more concrete reason.

Or, sometimes? People will simply trade illusion for illusion, kind of an, "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine" deal: "I'll support your illusions if you'll support mine."

But there's always an element of the power play in there - balancing the forces that keep us together, without which we tend to simply drift apart.

Seems like one could almost write a - law of emotional physics? - equation about that. Kind of like the, "For each and every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction" deal.