Resistance to interpersonal violence : implications for the practice of therapy

• Main Author: Wade, Allan
• Other Authors: Bavelas, Janet Beavin
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Violence; Clinical psychology
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/8993

Many individuals who consult psychotherapists have been subjected to interpersonal violence, such as wife-assult, sexualized assault and abuse, physical abuse, sexualized harassment, and other forms of humiliation. In this dissertation, I proposed that whenever individuals are subjected to interpersonal violence, they resist. Even when victims cannot stop the violence, they continue to resist. Part One presented examples of resistance and outlined eight assumptions that make diverse responses to interpersonal violence intelligible as forms of resistance. With few exceptions, psychotherapists have overlooked such resistance, largely because traditional approaches to therapy are based on the assumption of personal deficiency, that is, the view that problems in living are symptomatic of psychological or biological problems in individuals. However, by elucidating the complex, patterned, and collaborative nature of face-to-face communication, early micro-analysts introduced a new view of human problems as originating and maintained in social interaction. This insight led to the development of a comparatively new group of psychotherapies founded on the assumption of pre-existing ability, that is, the view that individuals know how to be well. It Is a small step to suggest, further, that individuals also possess the ability to resist interpersonal violence. In Part Two, I examined the nature and scope of resistance and its relationship to interpersonal violence. While resistance can be open and direct, under extreme conditions it is more often subtle and disguised because victims face the threat of retaliation for any act of open defiance. Perpetrators anticipate resistance and take specific steps to conceal and suppress it. Further, on close examination, it is apparent that there are a number of structural similarities between sociopolitical and interpersonal violence and resistance, so that the significance of small acts of resistance can be more readily elucidated by combining micro-analysis and critical philosophy. Feminist therapists and researchers, as well as some narrative therapists, have recognized spontaneous resistance and described methods of elucidating and honouring such resistance in the practice of therapy. In Part Three, I illustrated how language can be used to conceal and ultimately suppress victims' spontaneous resistance. In colonialist discourse and sexual assault trial judgments, language is used conceal violence, mitigate perpetrators' responsibility, and deny both the necessity and existence of resistance. In political and clinical theory, victims of oppression are often represented as passive and self-subjugating due to their presumed condition of false consciousness or internalized oppression. These representations negate or downplay victims' spontaneous resistance and reproduce the stereotype of the passive victim. In clinical research and theory, victims' complex mental and behavioural responses to interpersonal violence are recast as effects, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, and so on. As an alternative, I propose that therapy can be conceived as a process of elucidating and honouring victims' prudent, determined, and courageous resistance. === Graduate