Codependency: The social reconstruction of female experience

Abstract

Abstract The familiar language of codependency, while it represents an effort to name and articulate pain, has become a mythology in which the leading characters are defined as victims and as sick. This paper describes the historical evolution of the concept of codependency and discusses the dysfunctional dynamics in families that are seen as the origins of codependent behavior. An alternate language for describing such families is offered. Notes Jo‐Ann Krestan, M.A., L.S.A.C. and Claudia Bepko, M.S.W. are family therapists with a clinical and consulting practice in Brunswick, Maine. They specialize in addiction and in issues related to gender. This paper is adapted from an invitational lecture given at the Smith College School for Social Work in July, 1989.