Having a background in community services, my understanding of the term is when one person encourages the instability/disability/dependence in order to fulfil their own need to be important, central, needed eg. a mother with a disabled child will place speed bumps in the way for that child to develop to their potential in order that they remain of greatest importance in the child's life, often into adulthood. I've seen this happen a lot with mothers and children. The mother might do things like chase away others who gain the confidence of the child (family members or support workers) as they are a threat to her own centrality n that child's life. Or she might refuse to allow the child to participate in certain activities on flimsy grounds like "they'll get made fun of" or "they'll get hurt", so as to maintain their level of disability and reliance on mum.