Psychotherapy with wives of sexual deviants

The authors presents three case histories of wives of sexual deviants--two pedophilics and one exhibitionist. Each of these women felt responsible for the deviance of her husband and attempted to control her husband's acts through sexual activity. The authors suggest that these women derived some psychologic gain through the deviant acts of their husbands, having remained with these men during trying times. The ego defense mechanisms utilized by them included denial, intellectualization, isolation of affect and undoing. The wife is recognized as an integral part of the dynamic system involving the man, and as such, the necessity for her participation in the treatment is recognized. By encouraging change in the wives, a measure of change could be induced in their husbands. Myths about these women fitting a stereotype of cold, sexually unresponsive persons, as described in the literature and by their spouses, were not substantiated.