Hunter, J: Psychological Abuse of Married Women

The objectives of the book were to explore what constitutes psychological abuse for three married women in the Cayman Islands and how they perceived their experience of psychological abuse from their spouse. Data collected were by interviews that concentrated on the lived experience of the women and how they interpreted their experience of psychological abuse. The participants‘ experiences are described separately as well as integrated into a summary experience representing the group as a whole. The findings summarized the abuser as dominating and controlling and the victim as submissive and passive. Their experiences of psychological abuse followed a specific pattern and cycle of destruction which included verbal attacks, monitored family and social activities, control of money, sexual dominance, abusive attitude such as tone of voice and facial gestures to name a few. The main conclusions of the study were that these women endured invisible wounds, the psychologically abusive relationship was mostly kept hidden from others, the abuse was continuous and escalated, all the marriages ended in divorce, and that society in general tolerates psychological abuse.