ABSTRACT

Recent history reveals signs of a sea change in Western cultural attitudes toward intimate violence in general, and violence perpetrated by men toward women in particular. Such change is illustrated by significant changes in legislation, policies, social movements, and governmental investment in the physical health of individuals. However, evidence is accumulating that the psychological scars resulting from dysfunctional and abusive interaction are often deeper in their impact, slower to heal, and far more intractable than physical forms of abuse. Billions are spent to prevent and manage the aftereffects of physical violence, and virtually nothing is explicitly invested in improving the communicative processes that not only enable such violence, but are often more harmful than the violence. The nature of such communicative processes, often referred to as psychological abuse, is examined here with an eye toward developing a more coherent conceptualization and a more comprehensive operationalization.