Cover image for The abusive personality : violence and control in intimate relationships
Title:
The abusive personality : violence and control in intimate relationships
Personal Author:
Edition:
2nd ed.
Publication Information:
New York, NY : Guilford Press, 2007
ISBN:
9781593853716

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30000010157037 RC569.5.F3 D87 2007 Open Access Book Book
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Summary

Summary

This influential book provides an innovative framework for understanding and treating intimate partner violence. Integrating a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives, Donald G. Dutton demonstrates that male abusiveness is more than just a learned pattern of behavior--it is the outgrowth of a particular personality configuration. He illuminates the development of the abusive personality from early childhood to adulthood and presents an evidence-based treatment approach designed to meet this population's unique needs. The second edition features two new chapters on the neurobiological roots of abusive behavior and the development of abusiveness in females.


Author Notes

Donald G. Dutton, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. In 1979 he cofounded the Assaultive Husbands Project, a court-mandated treatment program for men convicted of spousal assault. Dr. Dutton has published over 100 papers and four books, including Domestic Assault of Women ; The Batterer: A Psychological Profile , which has been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Polish; and Rethinking Domestic Violence . He has frequently served as an expert witness in civil trials involving intimate abuse and in criminal trials involving family violence.


Reviews 1

Choice Review

Dutton (Univ. of British Columbia) provides a sweeping examination of research and theory with an eye toward intervention and change. Arguing that male abusive behavior is a natural and expected outgrowth from a particular personality configuration, the author suggests that three early factors constitute the core of the adult abusive personality: witnessing abuse, being shamed by a parent, and being insecurely attached through unpredictable parental emotional availability. The author covers early explanations of violence and control in intimate relationships, the learning of abusiveness, the psychology of the cycle of violence, the structure of the abusive personality, the primitive origins of rage, and attachment rage. He links the psychological profiles of abusive men with their partners' reports of the form and frequency of the male's abusiveness. A final chapter directed at clinicians focuses on the treatment of assaultiveness and includes suggestions for working with abusive individuals, who are often difficult clients. This volume contains a wealth of very useful material, including schematic diagrams illustrating points and hypothesized relationships, clear tables, copies of measurement instruments, ten pages of references, and endnotes (rather than footnotes). Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. C. S. Widom; SUNY at Albany


Table of Contents

1 Introduction
2 Early Explanations
3 Learning of Abusiveness
4 The Psychology of the Cycle of Violence
5 The Structure of the Abusive Personality: The Data
6 The Primitive Origins of Rage
7 An Anger Born of Fear: Attachment Rage
8 The Sociopsychoneurobiology of Attachment
9 The Early Antecedents Studies
10 Longitudinal Development and Female Abusive Personalities
11 The Treatment of Assaultiveness