Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice...

"The main character in the book and film Looking for Mr Goodbar was a woman who hooked up nightly in one-night stands, in some instances with sociopaths she picked up at bars. Such a person woud be a good example of a victim precipitator...

A victim-prone participant in a therapy group I directed had, with great difficult, exited from a relationship with an assaultive man. Three months after her separation she informed me she was in love with 'a wonderful shy and gentle man.' I saw her once a week on a regular basis. As if in a slow-motion film, she began to report in the group on how she and this formerly 'wonderful' man were beginning to argue... She, being the weaker of the two, was now being regularly abused by her 'lover'. This relationship was the fourth in a series over a three-year period. She had an uncanny ability for finding relationships with men who at the outset were 'kind and gentle' but who rapidly began to victimize her. Her delusionary ability at entry was remarkable. She was able to incorrectly read the real person - who soon turned into her criminal victimizer." - Criminology. Crime and Criminality, L. Yablonsky