Cupid's knife : women's anger and agency in violent relationships / Abby Stein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stein, Abby.

Series:

Psychoanalysis in a new key book series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abused women--Psychology.

Abused women.

Family violence--Psychological aspects.

Family violence.

Psychological abuse.

Physical Description:

xi, 186 pages ; 25 cm.

Edition:

Dual First.

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

"Much domestic violence literature has called attention to the fact that women's material needs for shelter, daycare, employment, and legal protection may render them helpless to leave toxic relationships. Yet, even with the provision of these, many women remain tightly wound in their abusers' embrace. In Cupid's Knife: Women's Anger and Agency in Violent Relationships, Abby Stein draws on the gripping narratives of physically and emotionally abused women to illuminate how splitting off their own aggression undermines women's agency, making it almost impossible for them to leave violent partners. Psychology, with its focus on "managing" men's anger in violent relationships, has had little to offer in the way of substantive critical work with women on the identification, integration and constructive use of a range of darker emotions typically labelled as antithetical to the norms for female behaviour. In this book, Abby Stein shows that although a number of psychological processes that contribute to the intractability of abusive relationships have been identified - such as trauma bonding and learned helplessness - their recognition has offered no clinical pathway out of the abyss. Stein suggests that our attention to other aspects of the internal world, the relational framework, and the cultural context in which both operate, may be more useful than current interventions in determining individual treatments that break the oft-cited "cycle of violence""-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 An ill-fated introduction 1

2 The utility of contempt 29

3 Engendered self-states 52

4 Masochism as medium 77

5 Theater of judicial absurdity 105

6 Venus with arms 134.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-178) and index.

ISBN:

9780415527866

0415527864

9780415527873

0415527872

OCLC:

849641382