Willi describes the hysterical marriage as a bond into which both partners—the hysterical woman and the hysterophile man—enter hoping to be cured of their neurotic disturbances. Yet this unconscious arrangement results in their becoming fixated in their neuroses. The typical course of a hysterical marriage leads to an interactive cycle in which each partner depends on the resistances of the other for the maintenance of his or her own defensive structure. Any attempt by one partner to disrupt the interactive ritual is immediately neutralized by the other. For therapy to be successful, it is decisive that the common denominator of the dovetailing neuroses (the 'collusion') be found and worked through thematically.