Codependency: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

1. Our understanding of psychological life has been underdeveloped and distorted because explanations have been created by only one half of the human species. The current broad and encompassing disease definition of codependency may devalue some of women's greatest strengths. 2. The disease model of codependency, it may be argued, is rooted in extant, reductionist models that suggest a developmental pathway of separation and individuation leading to an autonomous and independent maturity. 3. The feminist model of Growth in Connection proposes that the flowering of the self occurs within the development and maintenance of relationships in which accurate and mutual empathy is both the goal and the motivation toward growth.