On Codependency

“She was chained to this man, so favoured by circumstance, by some compulsion she could not fathom; she despised him for her own spinelessness and felt spineless to despise him; she was unfaithful to him as a means of escape but always chose the most awkward moments to speak of him or of their children; and she was never able to let go of him completely.  Like many unhappy wives, she ended up with an attitude – in an otherwise rather unstable personal environment – determined by resentment of her solidly-rooted husband, and she carried her conflict with him into every new experience that was supposed to free her from him.” (p.40)