Psychiatric Perspectives on the Abuse of Women: A Critical Approach (From Identification and Treatment of Spouse Abuse, P 9-35, 1980, Abraham Lurie and Elizabeth B Quitkin, eds.--See NCJ-101239)

• NCJ Number: 101240
• Author(s): E Stark
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; National Clearinghouse on Domestic Violence; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For microfiche, see NCJ-101239.

Annotation

Based on research at Yale New Haven Hospital (Connecticut), this study addresses the major clinical presentations of wife abuse; the impact of medicine, psychiatry, and social work on the battering syndrome; and lessons learned from the impact of therapeutic intervention on the evolution of the syndrome.

Abstract

Medical histories of abused and nonabused women are used to distinguish battering as a socioclinical syndrome in which specific therapeutic approaches develop alongside injury, as well as general medical and mental health problems. Clinical signs of battering are described, followed by a review of typical patterns of medical, psychiatric, and social work intervention. It is argued that the clinical signs of abuse and the typical intervention patterns are structured into the syndrome through a staging process during which abuse victims are taught to accept responsibility for their battering, often within reconstituted families where further violence is virtually inevitable. The study considers the implications of the prevalent tendency to project therapeutic failure onto a patient population at risk for abuse. It supports a positive therapuetic approach based on political support for current changes in normative sexual and family roles. 39 references and 22-item bibliography.