CCChat-Magazine_5

CCChat talks to:
Lisa Aronson-Fontes,PhD
L
isa
Aronson-Fontes, PhD is a Senior Lecturer at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst, author of numerous publications including:
Invisible Chains: Overcoming Coercive Control in Your Intimate
Relationship, Interviewing Clients Across Cultures, and Child Abuse &
Culture: Working with Diverse Families and a keynote speaker.
“We still need massive education for popular audiences and professionals. A
lot of women are calling their abusive partners "narcissists" rather than
abusers, and then try to work around the abusive behavior.”
Lisa Aronson- Fontes, PhD
Q: In your time, looking at and educating on coercive control , what would
you say has been the most profound change you have seen in the underlying
of it?
The passage of laws criminalizing Coercive and Controlling Behaviors in the UK is a
thrill. While the implementation is imperfect, it does serve as a model for the rest of
the world and we can only hope our own countries will follow the lead of the UK.
Undoubtedly, the exact wording of these laws and the training of police, judges,
advocates, psychotherapists and others will improve over time. Perhaps as a result
of the laws in the UK and all the publicity surrounding them in popular media, finally
the concept of coercive control is becoming better known in other countries, too.
In the U.S., women's magazines and newspapers have begun to use the term
"coercive control," mostly in regard to a few high profile cases such as Dirty John
Q: What do you think still needs to be done and how might that be achieved?
We still need massive education for popular audiences and professionals. A lot of
women are calling their abusive partners "narcissists" rather than abusers, and then
try to work around the abusive behavior. I think the concept of "coercive control'
would be extremely liberating to them. It would help them understand their partner's
actions as part of a deliberate pattern of control. And, of course, many victims still
blame themselves for the state of their relationships.The gaslighting and
perspecticide have caused them to think they are the problem and they continue to
try to fix their relationships by doing everything in their power to avoid angering their
abusive partners; this is exhausting and does not work.
2018 is the Year For Making The Invisible Visible