© Columbia University Press
Intimate Violence: Attacks Upon Psychic Interiority
March, 2002
Cloth, 192 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-11984-9
$40.00
/ £23.50
"In a scholarly and clinically astute work Joseph Scalia has integrated a wide range of clinical and developmental theories that demythologizes and humanizes a psychoanalytic pariah, the batterer. In a clearly written style Scalia provides firm and valuable guidelines for treatment laced with substantial clinical vignettes. Intimate Violence is essential reading for every clinician who works with batterers and their victims."" — Robert J. Marshall, Ph.D.
"In a scholarly discussion of powerful clinical cases in psychoanalysis, Scalia examines the need to establish an empathic alliance with the patient." — Choice
"Joseph Scalia's work Intimate Violence: Attacks Upon Psychic Interiority offers an in-depth exploration of the psychological complexity behind domestic violence . . . Scalia's work presents an important and interesting arguement." — Criminal Justice Review
"[Scalia's] approach is an eye-opener. The author has what seems the rare ability to get beyond the revulsion and disgust these patients would arouse in most therapists. He is able to reach patients at a primitive, emotional level and can effectively combat the powerful impulse to back away. Reading the author's clinical material enables one to see the humanity that even batterers possess." — Neil Wilson, Journal of Psychohistory
"This work is a watershed . . . .a must, not only for all mental health workers but also for society at large." — James S. Grotstein, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine
"Scalia's book is the most comprehensive psychoanalytical study of domestic violence to date, and, it will prove to be essential reading to anyone working in this area. His case studies are not simply informative and clinically helpful; they are also unforgettable. He arrives at new and convincing theoretical understandings of violent men. He has, in other words, found creative understandings of otherwise off-putting individuals: a remarkable fact in what so often seems a rather bleak part of the world of mental health." — Christopher Bollas, author of The Shadow of the Object
"Those seeking to understand intimate violence and who are willing to critically reexamine the psychic interior of the batterer will be rewarded with a fresh blending of theory building and treatment guidelines." — Cindy Garthwait, University of Montana