Life as a couple in the case of people living with psychic troubles is here considered as a social fact, that is, shaped by its environment and imposing itself on the people involved. Consequently, we show here that it has always been the object of control by the institutions which care for them. However, in the course of history this control has shifted and evolved in the light of social rules establishing the place of the insane or patients in society, and the attitude we have towards it, as well as those structuring the couple. These rules have participated actively in constructing their personal life. Beyond the forms of this control, its justifications have also shifted, passing from the protection of the family to the protection of the person himself. This control initially consisted in distancing the other sex, then in an approach to the couple which, today, even seems to be becoming a form of institutional care transforming the partner into a caregiver.