A person may be psychologically incapacitated vis-a-vis his wife, but he is

just like any regular guy to the rest of the world.

You can see all the different notions and impressions of psychological incapacity; and
how fertile the imagination of people is about it. But what really is psychological
incapacity under the Family Code?

In a nutshell, psychological incapacity is a person’s inability to comply with his (or her)
marital obligations to his (her) spouse. These marital obligations include giving mutual
love and help, respect, fidelity and support to the other. The party’s incapacity stems
from a root cause which is determined by an expert, like a psychiatrist. If the expert
finds him such, then he can recommend that the marriage be declared void ab initio
(from the beginning).

This is Article 36 of the Family Code. Said article mandates: “(a) marriage contracted by
any party who, at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to
comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if
such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization.”

For psychological incapacity to be a ground for declaration of nullity, it must be grave,

incurable and have juridical antecedence. Grave and incurable are self-explanatory.
Juridical antecedence means the incapacity must have been present at or even before
celebration of marriage (even though it manifested only, as the law provides, after
solemnization).

I think at this point, you are still quite drowned by the legal jargon. To help you
understand this better, let me cite an example. X and Y were sweethearts. After they got
married, X started exhibiting signs of incompatibility with Y. Later, he no longer cared for
and disrespected Y. He even refused to be intimate with her. He then stopped giving her
support.

In short, he ceased being what a husband should be to Y. This resulted in irreconcilable

differences where eventually the spouses could no longer tolerate each other. There
was no third party involved. The wife sought professional assistance from a psychiatrist.
The latter determined X as narcissistic (egocentric) which was the root cause of his
psychological incapacity. Because of this, the court, upon petition filed by Y, declared
their marriage void ab initio.