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