The Cycle of Abuse revisited
The Cycle of Abuse is a social theory by Dr Lenore Walker in 1979. Walker interviewed over a thousand domestic violence survivors early in her career. She found that there was a familiar pattern to the abuse that they had experienced. She named that pattern The Cycle of Abuse. Maybe it was something you've experienced in your family of origin or in a relationship?
When I was looking for a diagram of the Cycle a few weeks ago, I found ones that looked as if they, too, were from 1979! Ugh. The Cycle may be a bit depressing in content but it doesn't have to look that way with Times New Roman font and all black and white. So I updated it. Aside from the improving the appearance, I made another change. Can you tell what it is?
Did you guess it?
The old diagrams of the Cycle of Abuse don't include sexual assault as a type of incident. Neither does Walker in her explanation of the Cycle (that I can find). But it needs to be. Rape is a story survivors tell that is their “incident”. A sexual violation is no less important or valid than physical abuse. So it's included here.
Agree? Disagree? Love the jewel tones? Want the old version? Share your thoughts below. Thanks for reading
