Fabrício Guimarães

The main objective of this qualitative study was to research the impact that the story of a victim of marital violence would have on the lives and attitudes towards battering of other women victims‟. The book Dragon slippers: This is what an abusive relationship looks like published by the Penguin Group (Canada) in 2005 translated to Portuguese with the title Mas ele diz que me ama: graphic novel de uma relação violenta (Ediouro, 2006), a questionnaire and a discussion held at a reflection group were used as research strategy. Both the questionnaire and the discussion evolved around main aspects of the experience of violence reported in the book written by Rosalind Penfold. The main objectives of the study were: to identify the feelings that the reading of the book elicited in the women; to understand the similarities and differences identified by the women between their personal stories and the anesthetic beliefs of the main character in the book; to identify how the anesthesia, a concept developed by Argentinean psychiatrist Cristina Ravazzola, played a role in maintaining the women attached to the relationship and/or in preventing them from seeking help; to get to know how the women would nominate and perceive their on violent story by using the title of the book as a stimuli. The question asked was: Which title would you give to our own story? The participants of the study were nineteen women who had filed a complaint against their partners. They were referred by a judge or prosecutor to a public service Núcleo de Atendimento às Famílias e Autores de Violência Doméstica NAFAVD, a branch of the Federal District Council for Women - Coordenação para Assuntos da Mulher CAM/DF. The procedure - book reading, questionnaire and discussion - was implemented at the beginning of the process in Group Um Dia Serei Feliz - GSF One day I will be happy and at the end of the process in Group Saindo do Cativeiro - GSC - Moving out of Captivity. Nine (9) women participated in the first group and ten (10) in the latter. The research procedure involved two group meetings. On the first meeting each of the participants was given an exemplar of the book and the questionnaire to respond during the week between sessions. On the next meeting the women‟s reactions to the reading and to the questions were discussed. All of the participants reported feeling identified with the real life story narrated by the main character of the book. Many of them read the book several times. The reading empowered them and prompted them to identify strategies to bring about changes in their own lives. The denial, usually present in the narratives of battered women, gave place to awareness regarding the impact of their partners‟ violence in their lives. They valued the content of the book, and said that it would be very important that other women as well as their aggressors have access to it. These reactions were most certainly elicited due to the following: the book was written in a comic strips format; Roz, the main character, establishes a dialogue with the readers - she creates an intimate atmosphere by saying that she will be sharing a secret and in doing so she reveals the main elements listed in the literature as being frequently present in a violent relationship. The reading together with the questionnaire and the group reflection stimulated the identification of several anesthetic beliefs. The participants reported several anesthesias as being the most powerful in preventing them from seeking help or leaving the relationship. These anesthesias were grouped in five (5) categories: the expectative that partners and the relationship will change; ambiguity and minimization of their own feelings; self inflicted responsibility and guilt; minimization of the accountability of the aggressor; fear of the consequences of filling a complaint and/or filling for divorce. The women that participated in the research at the end of the group process were able to identify more anesthetic beliefs than the ones that participated at the beginning of the group process. This result might indicate that participants at the end of the process might feel more aware of the anesthesias that prevent them from breaking free from a violent relationship. The research strategy used to read and reflect about the story of another woman victim enabled the participants to talk about their own stories and to nominate the violence endured. Acquiring the ability to nominate the violence might be first step towards feeling more empowered to react and to free themselves from the imprisonment and subjugation generated by the dynamics of marital violence. The women gained or regained awareness of the injustices perpetrated by their partners and of the dangers and consequences of a violent relationship for their physical and mental integrity. The strategy proposed confirmed its potential and utility as a research procedure and as an important clinical resource to help battered women leave the captivity generated by domestic violence.

"Mas ele diz que me ama-" : impacto da história de uma vítima na vivência de violência conjugal de outras mulheres

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