Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Dichotomies in the power and control story: exploring multiple stories about men who chose abuse in intimate relationships
Other Titles:	Gecko : a journal of deconstruction and narrative ideas in therapeutic practice
Authors:	Augusta-Scott, Tod
Keywords:	Theories of violence;Perpetrators;Counselling
Year:	2001
Publisher:	Dulwich Centre Publications
Citation:	(2), 2001
Notes:	"Gecko" has now merged with "Dulwich Centre Journal", to become "International journal of narrative therapy and community work" Describes, critiques and builds upon the ‘power and control grand narrative’, a model used by practitioners to explain why men choose to batter their intimate partners. The model presupposes that men want, use and get the effects of power and control through abuse and therefore that much domestic abuse is calculated. The author, drawing on experiences from his own practice in Canada, challenges this presupposition as ‘dichotomous thinking’ in which abuse can only be intentional or non-intentional, the perpetrator powerful or powerless, leaving no space for competing or alternative narratives. Advocates the development of techniques which allow for perpetrators’ experiences of injustice, shame, fear and powerlessness to be told without excusing their violent behaviour but enabling the practitioner to reflexively question the masculine practices and assumptions they challenge in their clients and may themselves hold.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/14188
ISSN:	13282123
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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