The good husband is often a person who never learned how to take care of himself emotionally. He generally expects a woman to do this for him—his mother, his girlfriend, or his wife. She is there as his emotional security blanket, providing security that he seldom acknowledges. Indeed, he rarely, if ever, expresses any appreciation for her emotiona

Women generally seek more social support than men do, and they benefit more from psychotherapy. They also tend to lean more heavily on self-blame.

It is not that these women are more psychologically unbalanced than their husbands, even though the latter may seem to function at higher levels. What is unbalanced is the relationship, so that the women are absorbing their husband’s stresses and anxieties while also having to contain their own.