Dr. Eleanor Walker's Battered Female Victims Of Domestic Violence
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Women victims of domestic violence are subject to a cycle consisting of a series of repetitive behaviors and over time it increases its frequency making it more severe. Even as the aggression becomes more intense the reconciliation phase may disappear in some cases. The abuser selects the suitable moment to act, choose the tactics to scare and terrorize the victim to maintain dominance over it.
The cycle of violence described by Dr. Eleanor Walker in her book “Battered Woman Syndrome” consist of three phases:
1. Increased tension: During this phase minor assault incidents occur that create an environment of fear and insecurity for the woman. Her husband or partner gets angry about anything and everything, yelling or threaten the victim. In this phase the behavior of the woman is denial and rationalization of what is happening, which is expressed in the justification of the partner's behavior, she doesn’t even try to defend herself, and she acts very passively and almost convinced there is no exit therefore makes no effort to change the situation. Her emotional state is so precarious that the victim can suffer from frequent depressive states and the anxiety that disables her to realize what is happening because all her energy is being used to prevent further damage.
2.…show more content… Acute battering incident: The tensions are discharged through hitting, pushing, or excessive psychological abuse. At this stage both operate with a loss of control and high level of destructiveness on the part of man towards the woman, where he first begins to want to teach a lesson to his wife, without intent to harm and stops just when he thinks she learned her lesson. She is beaten and experience an uncertainty about what is coming; She knows for sure she will be badly beaten, thinking that any act or word that she says to try to stop the acute incident and as a way out of the anguish comes the uncertainty of the relationship, having the effect of provocation on the aggressiveness of the