So is battering just a psychological problem?
No. The ultimate answer to why does he batter is: BECAUSE HE
CAN. What that means is that the society has given him the idea
that a woman is property, his home his castle. Behavior he knows
he'd never get away with in the outside world, seems to be permitted
at home.
(Some batterers are also aggressive outside the home - this is
not a good sign but at least it makes this type of man more predictable.
The inconsistency of many batterers' behavior at home vs. outside
is more confusing for us to grasp.)
So we're saying that not all men are batterers, it takes special
circumstances to motivate abusive personalities - but once formed,
these men who might like to abuse many people get the message
that there will be consequences for so doing everywhere EXCEPT
with his woman. That's what is meant by he does it BECAUSE HE
CAN.
Another way to put this is to say that it takes a combination
of culture and family dysfunction to create an abusive personality.
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