GAMES FOR HYSTERICAL COUPLES – GAME 4: REVERSE HEADACHE (INTRODUCTION)

Players: Husband and hysterical wife. Activist: Husband. Setting: Home.

Aim: Use of paradoxical mirroring of wife’s headache maneuver by husband in order to provoke an authentic confrontation.

Game Plan: Like the passive, the hysterical woman gets headaches—often migraines—and uses them as an excuse to refuse sex. However, the hysteric’s headaches^ju?f øÿãåsevere and are sometimes accompanied by fits, “I said I haye a headache, and I mean I have a headache! Don’t you have any consideration or respect for me at all?” The angrier variety of hysteric, therefore, will not respond to the game called “Headache” (see chapter 3) nor to any pleas, demands, or discussions. That type needs a more forceful brand of emotional communication.

In this present game the husband imitates the wife’s behavior in a way somewhat like what children do to one another. He does not ask for sex from her anymore but rather waits until she asks something of him and then refuses—saying “I have a headache.” It can be a small or large request by her which elicits this response. For example, they may be watching television and she may say, “Would you change it to ‘Wheel of Fortune’?”