Et forandret kærlighedsnarrativ - Partnervolds betydning for kvinders forståelse af kærlighed

Abstract

Even in our late modern society, Intimate Partner Violence is a phenomenon of great prevalence. Many women experience that their romantic relationships with a partner includes physical and psychological violence. The understanding of love and what it entails for these women, and the role love plays in these violent romantic relationships, is scarcely investigated. This master’s project seeks to understand the phenomenon from a narrative perspective and with a focus on love narratives. It also seeks to study the changes in narratives based on different time periods: before, during and after the violent romantic relationships. Four women were recruited through the social media platform Facebook and were included in the study after answering a series of screening questions over the phone before the interview. All four women participated in individual semi-structured interviews which were guided by a timely chronological order based on before, during and after the violent romantic relationship. They were asked about the relationship itself and their understanding of love during the different time periods. The interviews were transcribed, and the analysis of the interviews was based on post structural, social constructionist and narrative perspectives, and was conducted using Dorte M. Søndergaard’s analysis method. Firstly, the authors read, thematized and categorized the empirical material. After this, the categories and themes were condensed, and the authors looked for and identified procedural patterns in the material. This resulted in the formulation of analytical questions which could contribute to answering the research questions. It became clear that there were two kinds of narratives: relationship narratives and love narratives. The analytical questions were answered using narrative theory, and the different narratives were identified and compared. It was found that there were great differences between relationship narratives dependent on whether it was a prior narrative or the current narrative of the women. One important example is, while the women prior to their release of the relationship saw the violence as a result of their own behaviour and regarded the behaviour of their violent partner as expressions of love; the women’s current relationship narratives look at the violence as unjustifiable and the behaviour as controlling and manipulating. It was found that the love narratives from the different time periods both had similarities and important differences. Similarities were for example the picture of love as an intense twosomeness and the goal of love is seen as the achievement of a nuclear family. Important differences between love narratives during and after the violent relationship were that the love narrative during the relationship valued love to the extent that it determined the value of the women, while the love narrative after the relationship describes love as dangerous, risky and as an opposite to freedom. Using theories of processes of partner violence and also cognitive and social constructionistic theories it is discussed which role the relationship narratives and love narratives play to each other and to the women’s entrapment in the violent romantic relationships. From this discussion a model is presented to explain the complexity of violent relationships and therefor offers a nuanced response to the question often asked, “why do these women not just leave?”. The model shows how the women are trapped in a spiral of sexist gender norms, partner violence processes, cognitive dissonance and shows upon which basis the love- and relationship narratives are developed and contribute to these processes. The project concludes that cognitive, social and partner violent specific processes entraps the women in violent relationships, and therefor speaks to the understanding that the women are not in these relationships because of personal distributes. Instead, it is indicated that the women are in these violent relationships due to social and cognitive processes. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research is ultimately presented.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

Et forandret kærlighedsnarrativ - Partnervolds betydning for kvinders forståelse af kærlighed

[A changed love narrative - The meaning of partner violence for women's understanding of love]