Emotional dependency is a healthy and adaptive aspect of human development. Differences exist in how this dependency is labeled for men and for women. Women are socialized to attract men as life partners and achieve through their affiliation with others, not to be competent and ambitious on their own. Women have been expected to subordinate themselves to men in physical and intellectual tasks. Women and men participate in relationships which protect the men's egos from women's competence. Women's emotional needs are often not met in their relationships with men; in the past, women's emotional needs have been met through friendships with other women. Men's emotional dependency is discussed under the concept of power. Men feel a need for validation through sexual relations with women, resulting in what they perceive to be women's power over them. Men feel that women gain power over them by women's ability to bring out men's positive and negative emotions. Perceived loss of power over self motivates men to seek to have power over women. An example of how slowly social patterns change is the high rate of sexual intimacy between therapists and clients. In the past, the professional viewed this unethical behavior as the woman client's fault because of her sexual power. Therapists themselves are trapped by their own socialization. Research needs to examine further the role of male dependency. (ABL)