NCJ Number
179414
Date Published
1998
Length
223 pages
Annotation
This book seeks to demonstrate that male abusiveness is not just a learned pattern of behavior, but the outgrowth of a particular personality configuration.
Abstract
The book integrates findings from research with more than 400 batterers with the literature on object relations, attachment and psychological trauma to trace the development of the abusive personality from early childhood to adulthood. The book reviews psychiatric, sociobiological and feminist perspectives on domestic abuse. It evaluates the strengths and limitations of the approaches, with particular attention to how well they explain the psychological profile of abusers that emerges from this research. The book points out that abusive men are in general easily threatened, jealous and fearful, and mask those emotions with anger and demands for control. The men also exhibit borderline personality characteristics and high, chronic levels of trauma symptoms. The book links this symptomatology to elements of childhood experience including physical abuse, rejection and shaming by fathers, and insecure attachment. One chapter presents a clinically oriented overview of a 16-week group treatment program for abusive men and considers the efficacy of various intervention approaches. Tables, figures, notes, references, index