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 treat… More >>
The Abusive Personality, Second Edition: Violence and Control in Intimate Relationships
This text goes into greater depth and covers issues more technically than does the similar volume, titled “The Batterer: A Psychological Profile”, by the same author. The content of “The Abusive Personality” is much the same, but “The Batterer” is written for non-professionals. If one is a mental-health, social-work, or other type of professional, or if one enjoys studying materials aimed at such, this is a very informative read. The general reader, though, would probably gain more from reading “The Batterer”.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is great for an upper-level research, not an easy-reader if you haven’t completed quite a bit of research on the subject. But…if you read this book, it has so much information in it that will spare you time reading other books on what the mind-set is behind the abuse, cycle of abuse, learning of the abuse. This book has many of the questions used in custody evaluation by custody evaluators. Professions could benefit from the vast amount of information and years of research provided by Mr. Dutton.
Rating: 5 / 5