Psychoanalytic Insights and the Prevention of Pseudosuccess in the Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Batterers

Abstract

The need for psychoanalytic informedness in the currently predominant cognitive-behavioral approaches to treating male batterers is addressed against the background of the author's experiences with this population. Examined and explained are the batterer's typical defense mechanisms, the therapist's unconscious reactions to those defense mechanisms, and how confrontation consequently can be unrealizedly misused, that is, executed abusively as opposed to constructively. The ultimate unconscious collusion by therapist and client to mistakenly perceive treatment as successful is then examined, followed by an hypothesis of the collusion's effect on the batterer and his spouse.

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