The impact of social values on the psychology of gender among Arab couples: a view from psychotherapy.

Three major psychosocial conditions have an effect upon the establishment of psychological problems within individuals and in the relationship of couples in the Arab family: (a) gender-dependent assessment of emotions, i.e., holding two different unequal yardsticks for two highly-genderized value systems; (b) imposing conflicting value demands on women; (c) glorifying and giving much respect to the notion of women's suffering in silence, a state described here as the "Mastoura" (tight lipped) woman, equivalent to the "learned helplessness" state. This article will also focus on the common forms of the manifestation of psychological or marital problems: sexual dysfunctions, somatic behavior and the usage of metaphoric language of psychosomatics. The article presents frequent complaints of couples who seek marriage therapy and the characteristics of each group.