Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The subject is emotional abuse--the ongoing process whereby one person attempts to destroy the will, needs, desires, or perceptions of another. The object is the well-educated, high-functioning professional woman. Dr. Joan Lachkar examines the origins and early warning signs of the psychological violation she describes as a dance between abuser and abused. She goes on to introduce typologies of each (the narcissistic or passive-aggressive abuser, the unentitled self) and to explore the bases for their collusive attachments. Addressing therapeutic functions like empathy, containment, and countertransference, and following a couple's evolution from a state of fusion through transitional two-ness to emerging separateness, dependent and interdependent, Dr. Lachkar applies her psychodynamic approach to treatment, informed by object relations and self psychology, and complete with guidelines for technique and practical suggestions for the couple.
Synopsis
Dr. Joan Lachkar examines the origins and early warning signs of the psychological violation she describes as a dance between abuser and abused. She goes on to introduce typologies of each (the narcissistic or passive-aggressive abuser, the unentitled self) and to explore the bases for their collusive attachments.
Synopsis
Many women who are on top of the world at work are diminished to a state of helplessness and victimization at home. Such women, contends noted author Joan Lachkar, are emotionally abused, high-functioning women. By delineating the behavior of both abuser and abused and the magnetic pull between them, Dr. Lachkar uncovers a little-explored dynamic system underlying many women's experiences of pain and desperation. Lachkar shows that these victims of abuse are forced to react with defenses that prove to be as debilitating as the abuse itself: withdrawal, hopelessness, guilt, shame, and psychosomatic illness. In this book, Dr. Lachkar enables readers to reach an understanding of what constitutes emotional abuse and learn how to recognize and treat it.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-202) and index.