Partners

I cannot imagine that a long-term relationship could survive in any sort of healthy manner if partners only held to a rigid complementarity, competitive symmetry, or submissive symmetry pattern. If I had to guess I would say that the worst of the three styles would be the competitive symmetry mainly because there would always be this desire to dominate the other. A agree that some form of competition can drive people to push beyond preconceived ideas, however, at what point would you slow down enough to appreciate life around you.
I would also guess that the submissive symmetry would be the most damaging to one’s self-esteem mainly because you would no longer have a sense of personal identity. Without some form of personal identity than a person is no longer a person, but a mechanical robot. I believe that we all need to stand up and ask/fight for what we want because it is rare that anyone else will do it for you.