Customer Reviews

Psychological Abuse in Violent Domestic Relations

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Comprehensive Reference on Psychological and Emotional Abuse:

This book provides one of the first comprehensive scientific treatments of an intrinsic topic in the area of domestic violence. O'Leary and Maiuro have compiled a series of cutting edge papers and commentaries on the assessment of various types of psychological and emotional abuse, the relationship of psychological abuse to physical abuse, and the impact of psychological abuse upon victims. Several new scales for reliably measuring such things as dominance, jealous control, denigration of self-esteem, interfering with work or school are included along with data that substantiates the validity of the tools. A form of victim manipulation called "Stockholm Syndrome" is also included in this volume, assisting the reader to understand why the victim continues to return to the perpetrator of psychological and emotional abuse. This resource is also filled with exceptionally current references for additional reading. This book is a good source for domestic abuse therapists, researchers, teachers, and sophisticated readers who want a state of the art reference book on the most toxic component of domestic abuse - psychological and emotional abuse. I would recommend it very highly.

As an educator, I found this to be an excellent reference book on psychological and emotional abuse. The editors have organized and critiqued a nice assortment of contributions from some of the top people in the field of psychology and domestic abuse. As Dr. Maiuro points out in his introductory chapter "Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names (as well as other forms of derogation and abuse) can also hurt you." While some of the work is technical and appropriate for advanced students and professionals, it is clearly written and includes actual tests that are used to determine whether someone is psychologically abused. I highly recommend it.

An excellent compendium of the latest issues regarding violent relationships. Challenging, informative, disturbing, and immensely useful not only for front-line therapists and counselors, but for anyone interested in the topic.