GAMES FOR OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE COUPLES
One of the best known obsessive-compulsive couples is depicted in The Odd Couple, a play by Neil Simon, which was also made into a movie and then a television series. The story concerned a relationship between two men—one meticulously neat and controlling, the other a careless slob. Many male-female couples like this form “odd” relationships that often seem to have an undertone of strife.
Actually, the control freak and the slob are two sides of the same coin. Both have the same compulsions to be neat and controlling, but one acts them out while the other just gives up, assuming he will never be able to maintain such high standards. One is compulsively rigid, one compulsively loose. Both use their defensive posture to express anger—the one through manipulating and dominating the other with his neatness, orderliness, and stinginess, and the other through defiance, stubbornness, and slovenliness.
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