Born to abuse? Negotiating identity within an interpretative repertoire of impairment

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23232575
AutoresRosaleen Croghan (The Open University), Dorothy Miell (The Open University)
Año1999
Volumen38
Número3
Páginas315-335
Fecha de publicación1999-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0144-6665 • E-ISSN: 2044-8309
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1348/014466699164194
PMID10520480
OpenAlexW2070233942
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4

The focus here is on the constraints and possibilities afforded by the mediation of experience though semi‐deterministic notions of the intergenerational transmission of abuse (the ‘cycle of abuse’ theory). A discourse analytic approach is adopted to accounts in which mothers identify themselves as having been abused in childhood. This identification is seen as inviting negative assumptions and inferences, among them the assumption that childhood abuse is associated with later abusive behaviour. The identity work occasioned by this, and the interpretative repertoires which ground participants constructions of the general mechanisms through which abuse may be transmitted, are examined. The analysis explores some of the consequences of adopting particular explanatory frameworks for the credentialling of a fully autonomous adult identity. It is suggested that paying attention to this kind of identity work can increase our understanding of the constitutive power of discursive frameworks and the limits of individual resistance within them.

Childhood abuse · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Explanatory power · Identification (biology) · Identity (music) · Identity formation · Mediation · Negotiation · Poison control · Power (physics) · Self-concept · Sexual abuse · Sociology · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology