cover image The Batterer: A Psychological Profile

The Batterer: A Psychological Profile

Susan K. Golant, Donald G. Dutton. Basic Books, $18 (209pp) ISBN 978-0-465-03387-4

University of British Columbia psychology professor Dutton specializes in treating batterers. A batterer's mind, he says, is ``a place of anguish and self-loathing.'' Writing with Golant (coauthor with Rosalyn Carter of Helping Yourself Help Others) he discusses the symptoms, characteristics and, in some cases, the cure for such violent behavior. Most repeat batterers, he maintains, suffer from a fragile sense of self, usually the result of a shaming father, an only intermittently available mother and violence in the family. For the batterer, an episode of violence involves three stages: buildup of tension, battering and contrition. Dutton rejects neurological and metabolic causes and sees symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the fear-filled attachment of the batterer to the woman he batters, whom he needs. Dutton shows how group therapy has occasionally been successful in treating batterers. (Oct.)