[Women and men with neurotic partnership conflicts: studies with the Giessen test].

Couples with neurotic partner conflicts were investigated by the Giessen-Test. Men were compared against women, and a clinical sample against a "normal" population sample. Neurotic men and women tend to idealize extremely symbiotic-like openness, high dominance and autonomy, concerning the own person as well as the partner. So they aspire to character attributes rather giving rise to problems in relationships than preventing them. Pretentions to the quality of partnerships in the clinical sample are higher than in normal population. Women in the clinical sample aspire to the former social roles of men which causes dispositions of struggles of power. Depressive characteristics of anancastic men are judged as reliability and seriousness by the women whereas men want women to be hysteric, charming, kind, and fond of life so that men dislike women's depressivity. Self-contentment and partner-contentment increase during therapy. Psychic and psycho-somatic symptoms decrease, the partner's support or non-support seems to influence the capability of attaining one's own therapy goals.