In the movie Provoked, Kiranjit Ahluwalia is a victim of Battered Woman’s Syndrome because she has hallucinations, believes that she was at fault and portrays learned helplessness throughout the movie. Kiranjit is shown to be mentally ill because she has a change in personality. She becomes weaker and more fearful of her surroundings and cringes away from men such as her defendant in court during one trial. Further she daydreams more than usual of the incidents in which her husband abused her such as when she was pregnant, he pushed her down the stairs and later apologized. The viewer of the film portrays Kiranjit as helpless. The viewer sees her isolated environment in the husband’s house and later the prison cell and her behavior towards them. She seemed lonely and distant from everyone in the prison after the murder of her husband. Even when Ronnie, her cellmate, tried to make conversation, she only said two audible words at first. I diagnosed Kiranjit by first observing her behavior in the prison cell. A victim of this syndrome would feel guilty and fearful and distant from friends and family. These symptoms can lead to depression. Other symptoms include loss of self-esteem and dependence on others for survival, which she does because she cowers behind a police officer when a man walks up to her to take her to the prison cell. As part of the diagnoses I found out that Kiranjit refused to seek help in fear and love of her husband. I saw this when she had gone to the hospital after her husband tried to burn her face with an iron for spending his money for his children. The nurse asked her where the bruises had come from but she responded by lying and repeatedly glancing at her husband while doing so. The illness was ... ... middle of paper ... ... her children. Distrust after an abusive relationship is common. I would advise her to be independent and gain confidence for herself. The therapist should advise ways for her to live independently and plan ways for her to support her and her sons. The inaccurate depiction of Battered Woman’s Syndrome in this movie includes the time when Kiranjit recovers at the end. In reality, a victim of Battered Woman’s Syndrome will not suddenly regain confidence in a short period of time. For the purpose of the movie’s happy ending, Kiranjit “got better” at the end and manages to speak to the townspeople, face to face, of her situation after she got out of prison. However the depiction of the hallucination scene was well acted out. Kiranjit was sleeping in the cot below Ronnie, her cellmate Work Cited
There are many women who are currently in an abusive relationship, or have been in an abusive relationship. The most common reason these women do not leave their abuser is because they are scared, financial, or family reasons. Amy McGee would be alive today to tell her own story if her situation was handled differently.
One of the reasons why IPV victims do not leave his or her abusers is due to isolation. This one of the any methods abusers use in order to achieve control over his or her victims. Abusers isolate the victim by cutting the victim's ties to any support system and resources. A support system includes family, friends, classmates, coworkers, and the government. Isolation is one of the many methods used in order to gain control over the victim’s life. In the autobiographical novel, I Am Not Your Victim: Anatomy of Domestic Violence, the author Beth Sipe discusses the domestic violence that she had suffered during her 16 year marriage. Sipe describes their “romance,” the abuse of power, Sam isolating her and her family, the confusion, the fear, the
First I would like to address the definition of Battered Woman Syndrome. Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS) is a condition often used by the defense in cases like this one to relieve the defendant of some or
In Aisha’s situation she was the one who was physically abused, that lead her and her sister being taken from the home. Aisha had a brown spot on her arm where someone burned her from a cigarette. Aisha or her sister, Alisha was ever diagnosed with any psychiatric problem or have substance problems. But their mother did. She was placed in a psychiatric hold because she threatened to kill herself after the girls were put on a 72 hour hold.
Shortly after the news broke that actress Amber Heard was divorcing Johnny Depp and getting a restraining order due to continued emotional and physical abuse throughout their fifteen-month marriage, gossip media outlets seized the opportunity to report. A photo of Amber, with a bruised face, went viral as soon as it dropped, and gossip sites everywhere began talking about the alleged abuse. While some of this reporting was unbiased and fair, many of the articles were written with information from unreliable sources that vilified Amber. Headlines brought up Amber’s past and used a part of her identity against her, and unsubstantiated claims were made that Amber’s “constant partying” and “bisexual tendencies” (The Sun) were what ultimately led
I have been seeing my 15-year-old client, Alicia, for some time now. She reports that she was a foster child after both of her parents were incarcerated for drug and child abuse. She is currently living with her maternal grandparents but has disclosed that when she was in the foster system she was sexually molested. Alicia has been slow-to-warm but it appears that we are establishing rapport as she is beginning to show more positive affect. Nevertheless, in our most recent session, Alicia appeared to be “high” and disclosed that her uncle has returned from war and is staying with her and her grandparent. Alicia reported that he has been molesting her and that despite this she has does not want to go back into the foster system but only told be to tell someone safe.
The client's mother was emotionally unavailable and never stepped in to intervene during the father's violent rage. The client witnessed domestic violence as a child and also personally experienced years of abuse from her husband. The client had two children with her soon to be ex husband, a son and a daughter, as well as two grandkids. She reports a having frequent contact with her children, however, she describes their relationship as distant. Both of her parents struggled with alcoholism but the client denies any alcohol abuse. The client's experiences made her develop low self-esteem and low confidence as well as difficulties trusting others. Regina cannot maintain healthy relationships and has problems interacting with others
This is especially the case with women who have experienced complex trauma. I assumed that Gennifer’s and my therapeutic relationship would become stronger as the sessions progress. We spend a lot of time discussing her difficulties and I took an empathetic stance when she told me about her substance abuse and legal issues. Eventually, when I felt that our working alliance was strong enough, I started with the interventions. Most of the time during the interventions, the relationship between Gennifer and me was close to that of a student and a teacher. We both collaborated in order for me to provide Gennifer with psychoeducation and techniques. I taught Gennifer that she is the reason to her emotional disturbances and that working toward helping herself is the key to
Moylan, Carrie A., et al. "The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on
He might have difficulty developing a trusting relationship due to his prior experience. While Brian did not seem to have a good connection with his father, he seems to have a better connection with his mother and sister. Hence, it might be easier for him to connect with a female therapist. However, given the nature of his traumatic experience and his experience with Avalyn, Brian might have difficulty expressing himself in front of a female therapist. He might be fearful of being judged. All of these suggest that a strong therapeutic alliance is indicative prior to the work of processing his trauma. The therapist needs to be patience and meet Brian where he is to help him to address his difficulty. Additionally, the therapist needs to be careful to avoid retraumatizing Brian if his experience with Avalyn is also another source of trauma to him. Moreover, Brian seems to have low self-esteem. In order for Brian to feel confident, the therapist has to focus on increasing Brian’s self-efficacy (Beck, 2011) and resilience (Barnes & Josefowitz, 2014) prior to challenging his maladaptive behaviors or thoughts to avoid long-term behavioral consequences such as engaging in delinquent
She began experiencing overwhelming sadness that had started a couple of months prior to leaving. Tia was assuming it is because she has never been away from her family and friends for that long, especial having to be in a different state she was a newlywed and knew that being away from her husband for 6 months to a year was going to be hard. He was in school, but she knew he was coming to visit as often as he could. The week before she left for basic training she started asking him every day are you going to wait for me will you keep loving me and his answer was always yes, Tia did not believe him. She states once she was away she started hating him and would get mad for no reason when on the phone with her husband or her parents. What she did not know was that she was experiencing symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. A person who is going through changes, that they cannot explain can be overwhelming. Working in the mental health industry, I experience a large group of people who start self-diagnosing (looking on Wikipedia or Web MD). By time they reach out to get the help they need they are in a much worse place and normally needs more testing. We as humans are afraid of what people will think if we ask for help, that was the case with
There are many cases where self- defense has been used as a plea where the victim felt they were in harms’ way or unable to escape a specific situation that ended badly. The definition for self- defense is: 1. Defense of oneself when physically attacked 2. Defense of what belongs to oneself, as ones work or reputation 3. (Law) the right to protect oneself against violence or threatened violence with whatever force or means reasonable or necessary. According to an expert on battered women, a woman must experience at least two complete battering cycles before being labeled a battered woman. (Walker) According to Dowd, “he believes the proper use of BWS assists the fact finder to understand the state of mind of the battered woman at the time she fought back against her abuser.”(1) Women should be able to use BWS as a plea when habitual abuse occurs within a relationship with a significant other and results in violence or worse death.
been applied not just to women showing the battered syndrome, but to many situations and
Many women who have faced domestic violence can have post-trauma stress disorder. Jetter’s reffers to a 47 year old woman who spent 14 years working with a trauma therapist to work on her post trauma stress disorder at night. She still remembers the sound of her skull hitting the walls and the black holes
According to the textbook, Victimology Legal, Psychological, and Social Perspectives the fourth edition, written by Harvey Wallace and Cliff Roberson, many victims experience the battered woman syndrome. Based on this theory a woman gradually becomes immobilized by fear and believes that they have no other option. The victim from this study shows that in her description of her abuse. Another theory that was shown by the victim is the traumatic bonding theory. The victim left the abuser several times but each time her immediate fears began to diminish and her hidden attachment to her abuser began to manifest itself and she went back to the abuser. The cycle theory of violence introduced by Lenore E. Walker is one way to explain why victims may