Hostile dependency

One of the observations often made by therapists who have tried to treat hostile dependency is the degradation of trust between the spouses to the point of paranoid behavior (Martin, 1968). Conflicts between the spouses escalate to the point that both have internalized the anger and negativity of the relationship, resulting in depression. Through their depression, patients have begun to lose their trust in one another and become suspicious of each other's motivations and actions (Martin, 1968). Paranoid ideation can manifest itself in one spouse when they are actively aggressive towards the other spouse, who then reciprocates with passive aggression (Williams, Trick, & Troum, 1981). This pattern of mistrust was sometimes called "Paranoid Wife Syndrome" (Martin, 1968). However, this term is now outdated.

An investigation of the early relationship between couples that experience what was formerly referred to as Paranoid Wife Syndrome, but not more widely referred to as paranoid personality disorder, tends to show a strong attraction between the spouses when they first began their romantic relationship (Williams, Trick, & Troum, 1981). Both spouses might recount a strong compatibility between the two of them. These strong, positive feelings reflect the security needs of the spouses that developed out of their early experiences. They work well together as a couple because they complement one another's neurosis. Through the course of the marriage, a series of negative interactions, influenced by neurotic motivations, between the spouses will reveal their anxieties to one another and result in the development of the syndrome (Williams, Trick, & Troum, 1981).

In Zorica Markovic's (1999) comparison of psychoanalytic conceptions of marital relationships, similarities are drawn between Knight Adrich's (1966) observations of hostile-dependent relationship styles and Bela Mittelmann's work on aggressive relationships. Mittelmann outlines a reciprocal and neurotic relationship orientation where partners are complementary in a way that creates a self-perpetuating cycle of tension. Like hostile-dependent relationships, the partners in these couples have neurotic needs that develop from early life experiences and create conflict within the relationship. Unlike hostile-dependent relationships, Mittelmann's model does not involve the development of suspicion or paranoia between spouses.

• Aldrich, Knight. (1966). An Introduction to Dynamic Psychiatry. McGraw - Hill: New York.
• Markovic, Z. (1999). Psychoanalytic conceptions of marriage and marital relationships. Facta Universitatis, 2, 379-389.
• Martin, M. (1968). Hostile dependency in marriage. Minnesota Medicine, 51, 510-511.
• Williams, A., Trick, O., & Troum, R. (1981). The paranoid wife syndrome: Diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 7, 75-79.