Halldorsdottir S. In the jaws of death: Surviving women's experience of male intimate terrorism.
J Adv Nurs 2023;
79:1426-1436. [PMID:
36625094 DOI:
10.1111/jan.15553]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Revised: 11/30/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
AIMS
To explore the meaning of male intimate terrorism, its evolvement and its impact on women from the perspective of female survivors.
DESIGN
The Vancouver School of Doing Phenomenology.
METHODS
Nine women were interviewed 1-3 times, in all 16 interviews. The interviews were from 68 to 172 min (average 87 min). Data analysis was done through interpretive thematic analysis.
RESULTS
For the surviving women, the intimate terrorism was a horrendous experience and they felt in the 'jaws of death'. The violence got worse over time from the entrapment phase where the men were obsessed with the women and monitored them, to the silencing phase, where the men silenced the women and the death phase, where the women felt as shadows of themselves. The women also described the awakening and recovery phases. The men's intense psychological aggression, marital rape and attempts to strangle them, were the gravest aspects of intimate terrorism and what contributed to them eventually feeling psychologically 'more than dead'.
CONCLUSION
What is most striking in the findings is how the fundamental human rights of the women were violated and how close to death the women came. Nurses need to be knowledgeable about the danger of intimate terrorism, how to screen for it and provide trauma-focused nursing care to women who have been subjected to such trauma.
PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION
The women who were interviewed in the study are not patients, but they are part of the public.
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