Distortions of the mind: from cultural models to domestic violence

Abstract

The present article focuses on the connection between cultural models, cognitive distortions and domestic violence. More specifically, drawing on the analysis of data taken from narratives of sexual abuse and battering, this paper argues that the aggressor’s justification of the exercise of violence against women and the construction of victim identity  are rooted in the internalisation of patriarchal cultural models and the activation of cognitive distortions based on such models. The analysis will also show that the different cognitive self-representations of sexual offenders and victims are reproduced in the victim’s first person narrative discourse and/or in the verbal interaction between aggressor and victim, as recalled by the victim.