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Domestic Violence and Psychology

A Critical Perspective

Domestic Violence and Psychology
  • Price: $80.00 $72.00
  • Hardback: 200 pages
  • Also available in Paperback
  • Published: May 2010
  • ISBN: 978-0-415-38371-4
  • Publisher: Routledge

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Part of the Women and Psychology series

This book rethinks the way psychological knowledge of domestic violence has typically been constructed. It puts forward a psychological perspective which is both critical of the traditional ‘woman blaming’ stance, as well as being at odds with the feminist position that men are wholly to blame for domestic abuse and that violence in intimate relationships is caused by gender-power relations. It is rather argued that to neglect the emotions, experiences and psychological explanations for domestic violence is to fail those who suffer and thwart attempts to prevent future abuse.

Nicolson suggests that domestic violence needs to be discussed and understood on several levels: material contexts, including resources such as support networks as well as the physical impact of violence, the discursive, as a social problem or gendered analysis, and the emotional level which can be both conscious and unconscious.

Drawing on the work of scholars including Giddens, Foucault, Klein and Winnicott, and using interview and survey data to illustrate its arguments, Domestic Violence and Psychology develops a theoretical framework for examining the context, intentions and experiences in the lives of women in abusive relationships, the men who abuse and the children who suffer in the abusive family. As such this book will be of great interest to those studying social and clinical psychology, social work, cultural studies, sociology and women’s studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Part I: The Context. 1. Domestic Violence: The Material Context. 2. What is Domestic Abuse. 3. Psychology, Feminism, and Ideology: Where Do We Go From Here. Part II: Discursive Constructions of Domestic Violence and Abuse. 4. The Social Construction of Domestic Abuse: Myths, Legends and Formula Stories. 5. Public Perceptions and Moral Tales. Part III: (Re)turning to Intra-psychic Psychology. 6. Lived Experience and the 'Material-Discursive-Intra-Psychic' Self. 7. Domestic Abuse Across Generations: Intra-psychic Dimensions. 8. 'Doing' Domestic Violence: Dilemmas of Care and Blame. References.