This qualitative study examines the life stories of men who committed violent crimes against their intimate partners, for which they have served prison sentences. For the study, nine men in a rehabilitation hostel in Israel were interviewed. The study aim was to understand the psychological process that had brought the participants to behave violently towards their partners. Narrative analysis of the life stories resulted in two main themes. The first, childhood, was related to how the interviewee during his childhood perceived his personal identity and his parents. The second theme represented the adult interviewee’s worldview of violence in general and of intimate partner violence in particular. The findings revealed a subjective feeling of inferiority and lack of worth and volition during childhood, a feeling of chaos, and the absence of existential meaning. To avoid these feelings in adulthood, the participants chose a lifestyle that included the use of force and violence, which provided them with a sense of control and meaning. Discussion of the findings is based on the individual psychology theory of Adler and his followers, as well as on the existentialist orientation. According to these approaches, the study participants, who lacked a sense of positive “existential being,” developed a negative lifestyle that enabled them to feel a sense of security, value, and meaning.
AddadM. (1987a). Neuroticism, extraversion and meaning of life: A comparative study of criminals and non-criminals. Personality and Individual Differences, 8, 879-883.
2.
AddadM. (1987b). Psychogenic neuroticism and noogenic self-strengthening. International Forum for Logotherapy, 10, 52-59.
3.
AddadM.BenezechM. (1982). New approach to the process of stigmatization in criminology: The preparatory ground. International Criminal Police Review, 356, 66-72.
4.
AddadM.VignanskyE.HimiH. (2008). Existential being, existential vacuum and behavior. In YagilD.CarmiA.ZakiM.LivniA. (Eds.), Psychology, law and ethics in Israel-Psychological evaluation, psychotherapy and judicial decisions (pp. 335-357). Haifa, Israel: Haifa University. (In Hebrew)
5.
AdlerA. (1937). What life should mean to you. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
6.
AdlerA. (1939). Guiding human misfits: A practical application of individual psychology. London, England: Faber and Faber.
7.
AdlerK. A.DeutschD. (1959). Essays in individual psychology. New York, NY: Grove Press.
8.
AnsbacherH. L.AnsbacherR. R. (1956). Individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York, NY: Harper Torchbooks.
9.
AshbyJ. S.KottmanT. (2000). The relationships between personality priorities and affect, depression, self-efficacy, and fear of intimacy. The Journal of Individual Psychology, 56, 172-183.
10.
AustinJ. L. (1961). Philosophical papers. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
11.
Azam AliP.NaylorP. B. (2013). Intimate partner violence: A narrative review of the feminist, social and ecological explanations for its causation. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18, 611-619.
12.
Ballif-SpanvillB.ClaytonC.HendrixS. (2007). Witness and nonwitness children’s violent and peaceful behavior in different types of simulated conflict with peers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 77, 206-215.
13.
BanduraA. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
14.
BanduraA. (1979). The social learning perspective: Mechanisms of aggression. In TochH. (Ed.), Psychology of crime and criminal justice (pp. 298-333). New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
15.
BarnettO.HambergerL. (1992). The assessment of martially violent men on the California Psychological Inventory. Violence and Victims, 7, 15-28.
16.
BellM. B.NaugaA. (2008). Intimate partner violence: Theoretical considerations: Moving towards a contextual framework. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 1096-1107.
17.
BowlbyJ. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York, NY: Basic Books.
18.
BrunerJ. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press.
19.
BrunerJ. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1-21.
20.
BrunerJ. (2001). Self making and world making. In BrockmeierJ.CarboughD. (Eds.), Narrative & identity studies in autobiography self & culture (pp. 25-38). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
21.
BurnettR.MarunaS. (2006). The kindness of prisoners. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 6, 83-106.
22.
CappellC.HeinerR. B. (1990). The intergenerational transmission of family aggression. Journal of Family Violence, 5, 135-152.
23.
ChetanA. J. (2009). An empirical validation of Victor Frankl’s logotherapeutic model (Doctoral dissertation). University of Missouri-Kansas City.
24.
DilmonR.TimorU. (2014). The narrative of men who murder their partners: How reliable is it?International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 58, 1125-1149.
25.
DodgeK. A.BatesJ. E.PettitG. S. (1990). Mechanisms in the cycle of violence. Science, 250, 1678-1683.
26.
DollardJ. D.DoobL.MillerN.MowrerO.SearsR. (1939). Frustration & aggression. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
27.
DuttonD. G. (1986). Wife assaulter’s explanations for assault: The neutralization of self-punishment. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 18, 381-390.
28.
DuttonD. G. (2001). The domestic assault of women: Psychological & criminal justice perspectives. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press.
29.
DuttonD. G.StrachanC. E. (1987). Motivational needs for power and spouse-specific assertiveness in assaultive and nonassaultive men. Violence and Victims, 2, 145-156.
30.
EisikovitsZ.WinstokZ. (2002). Reconstructing intimate violence: The structure and content of recollections of violent events. Qualitative Health Research, 12, 685-699.
31.
EliadeM. (1961). The sacred and the profane. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.
32.
ElishaE.IdisisY.TimorU.AddadM. (2010). Typology of intimate partner homicide: Personal, interpersonal, and environmental characteristics of men who murdered their female intimate partner. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 54, 494-516.
33.
FarrallS. (2005). On the existential aspects of desistance from crime. Symbolic Interaction, 28, 367-386.
34.
FooL.MargolinG. (1995). A multivariate investigation of dating aggression.Journal of Family Violence, 10, 351-377.
35.
FranklV. (1967). Psychotherapy and existentialism: Selected paper on logotherapy. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
36.
FranklV. (1969). The will to meaning: Foundations and application of logotherapy. New York, NY: The World Publishing.
37.
FranklV. (1978). The unheard cry for meaning: Psychotherapy and humanism. New York, NY: Bantam.
38.
FranklV. (1984). Man’s search for meaning. New York, NY: Washington Square Press.
39.
FreudS. (1959). Collected papers. New York, NY: Basic Books.
40.
GeffnerR. A.RosenbaumA. (2001). Domestic violence offenders: Treatment and intervention standards. In GeffnerR. A.RosenbaumA. (Eds.), Domestic violence offenders: Current interventions research and implications for policies and standards (pp. 1-10). New York, NY: The Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press.
41.
GiorgyA. (1985). Phenomenology and psychological research. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
42.
Holtzworth-MunroeA.BatesL.SmutzlerN.SandinE. (1997). A brief review of the research on husband violence. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 2, 65-99.
43.
Holtzworth-MunroeA.StuartG. L. (1994). Typologies of male batterers: Three subtypes and the differences among them. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 476-497.
44.
JamesW. (1968). The self. In GordonC.GergenK. (Eds.), The self in social interaction (pp. 41-50). New York, NY: John Wiley.
45.
JinX.EagleM.YoshiokaM. (2007). Early exposure to violence in the family of origin and positive attitudes towards marital violence: Chinese immigrant male batterers vs. controls. Journal of Family Violence, 22, 211-222.
46.
KalmussD. (1984). The intergenerational transmission of marital aggression. Journal of Marriage and Family, 46, 11-19.
47.
KefirN. (1981). Impasse/priority therapy. In CorsiniR. (Ed.), Handbook of innovative psychotherapies (pp. 401-415). New York, NY: John Wiley.
48.
KinsfogelK. M.GrychJ. H. (2004). Interparental conflict and adolescent dating relationships: Integrating cognitive, emotional, and peer influences. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 505-515.
49.
KutchinsC. B.CurletteW. L.KernR. M. (1997). To what extent is there a relationship between personality priorities and lifestyle themes?Individual Psychology, 53, 373-387.
50.
LangleA. (2005). The search for meaning in life and the existential fundamental motivations. Existential Analysis, 16, 2-14.
MaloneJ.TyreeA.O’LearyK. D. (1989). Generalization and containment: Different effects of past aggression for wives and husbands. Journal of Marriage and Family, 51, 687-697.
53.
MarunaS. (2001). Making good: How ex-convicts reform and rebuild their lives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
54.
MarunaS.CopesH. (2005). Excuses, excuses: What have we learned from five decades of neutralization research?Crime and Justice, 32, 221-320.
55.
MaslowA. (1967). Self-actualization and beyond. In BugentalJ. F. T. (Ed.), Challenges of humanistic psychology (pp. 279-286). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
56.
MilletichR. J.KelleyM.DoaneA. N.PearsonM. R. (2010). Exposure to interparental violence and childhood physical and emotional abuse as related to physical aggression in undergraduate dating relationships. Journal of Family Violence, 25, 627-637.
57.
NellerD. J.DenneyR. L.PietzC. A.ThomlinsonR. P. (2005). Testing the trauma model of violence. Journal of Family Violence, 20, 151-159.
58.
OchsE.CappsL. (1996). Narrating the self. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 19-43.
59.
O’KeefeM. (1998). Factors mediating the link between witnessing interparental violence and dating violence. Journal of Family Violence, 13, 39-57.
60.
O’KeeffeN. K.BrockoppK.ChewE. (1986). Teen dating violence. Social Work, 31, 465-468.
61.
Pournaghash-TehraniS. (2011). The role of beliefs, attitudes and adverse childhood experiences in predicting men’s reactions towards their spouses’ violence. Journal of Family Violence, 26, 93-99.
62.
PresserL. (2009). The narratives of offenders. Theoretical Criminology, 13, 177-200.
63.
SandbergS. (2008). Narrative search for respect. Deviant Behavior, 30, 487-510.
64.
ScottM. B.LymanS. M. (1968). Accounts. American Sociological Review, 33, 46-62.
65.
ShilsE. (1975). Center and periphery. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
66.
ShkediA. (2011). The meaning behind the words. Tel Aviv, Israel: Ramot. (In Hebrew)
67.
StetsJ. E.Pirog-GoodM. (1987). Violence in dating relationships. Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 237-246.
68.
StithS. M.Amanor-BoaduY.MillerM. S.MenhusenE.MorganC.Few-DemoA. (2011). Vulnerabilities, stressors, and adaptations in situationally violent relationships. Family Relations, 60, 73-89.
69.
StithS. M.RosenK. H.MiddletonK. A.BuschA. L.LundebergK.CarltonR. P. (2000). The intergenerational transmission of spouse abuse: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 640-652.
SykesG.MatzaD. (1957). Techniques of neutralization. American Sociological Review, 22, 644-670.
72.
ThompsonC.LocanderW.PollioH. (1989). Putting consumer experience back into consumer research: The philosophy and method of existential-phenomenology. Journal of Consumer Research, 6, 133-146.
73.
TimorU. (2001). Balagan: Delinquency as a result of the lack of a center of norms and consciousness. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45, 730-748.
74.
WalkerL. E. (2009). The battered woman syndrome (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
75.
WhiteH. R.WidomC. S. (2003). Intimate partner violence among abused and neglected children in young adulthood: The mediating effects of early aggression, antisocial personality, hostility and alcohol problems. Aggressive Behavior, 29, 332-345.
76.
WiddershovenG. A. M. (1993). The story of life-Hermeneutic perspectives on the relationship between narrative and life history. In JosselsonR.LieblichA. (Eds.), The narrative study of lives (pp. 1-20). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
