... It made sence, of course - he should  have seen it coming. She lost too many strong figures in her life, too many people she had depended on. <...> She might be protective and possessive with <...>  whom she thought of as needing her, but with the people she  needed, she was the opposite. If she feared that they would be taken away from her, she withdrew from them; she stopped permitting herself to need them.

(c) Orson Scott Card