Codependency
A relationship pattern where one person's needs and identity revolve entirely around managing the other's.
Origin
Term emerged from 1970s addiction-recovery culture (Al-Anon, the support network for families of alcoholics) to describe spouses whose lives reorganized around the drinker's chaos. Melody Beattie's Codependent No More (1986) — over eight million copies sold — generalized it into a broader pattern: caretaking that has become compulsive, self-erasing, and bound up with the caretaker's identity. Not a formal DSM diagnosis, but enormously influential in self-help and therapy talk.
Modern usage
Now applied well beyond addiction. 'Our friendship got codependent,' 'codependent parenting,' 'codependent team dynamics.' The cure prescribed is almost always [[boundaries]] and individuation. The looser the use, the further it drifts from the original recovery context.
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