PSYCHOTRAUMATISM IN VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Abstract

Traumatism (whether physical or psychological) is a
psyche-breaking in phenomenon that causes traumatic
memory. That last comes with the (first) facts of violence,
setting – normal – autobiographic memory on a standby
mode from a few hours to several days. Subsequently,
until the victim displays any resilience, those two types of
memory function in a parallel way. One in terms of
societal reality, the other in the light of anything that can remind, near or far, the suffered aggression(s).
Psychotraumatism can be unique or repeated. In the case
of chronical violence, as in marital abuse, this traumatic
memory, not only untreatable, will be maintained and
even enhanced – trapped in the web of a grip or, in other
words, of psychological violence instilled in a permanent
and insidious way.
In order to defend against that psychotrauma, the victim
resorts to repetition or avoidance strategies or psychic
tools like hypervigilance or stress, helping to endure on
one side, facilitating the appearance (or maintenance) of
post-traumatic anxio-depressive symptoms on the other.
At a time when violence is the first cause of morbidity
and mortality in the world, every effort should be made
to take charge, in a judiciary way for the repressive
aspect, and sanitary for the preventive one, the two poles
of that violence: abuser and victim. First, total incapacity for work should include a psychological component to
evaluate suitable disorders. Then, an obligation or order
of care for the former, spotting and care incentive for the
last, would pave the way to reduce recidivism for some
and overvictimization for others.