Well, a great question! Me, I'm wondering about it, too. Oftentimes this happens to me. I figure out something and it just leads to another fascinating question. In my paper on the Power of Passivity, I speak of ways to approach people in the Master, or Slave or Passive Master positions. Of course, no one is forever in just one spot but moves around. The goal is to move them all to the Friend-Friend position. Certainly, if you move over and stay over in Friend/Friend (no mean feat!), your partner can no longer remain comfortably in the Slave position. He may struggle around into Master or Passive Master. He may flounder around in the Slave position. My guess is that he has some growing up to do. Recently I found this situation might be one where a good therapist for him alone (I rarely recommend individual therapy anymore.) might be a good idea - someone who is good at working with Codependency. He might also benefit from something like Men's Work. I am not sure. But the good thing is you have an idea (many ideas) of what is going on. Let me know how it works. I will be thinking on this and probably will write more.