A retrospective exploration of women’s experiences in violent heterosexual intimate partner relationships: a thematic case analysis

M.A. (Clinical Psychology)When violence takes place in the home between intimate partners, specifically, the term intimate partner violence is referred to. Intimate partner violence, the form of violence commonly used to describe spouse or partner violence, is reported in South Africa to have higher victimization rates among women than among men. This research study, using an essentialist/realist stance, aimed to explore how three South African women retrospectively examine their experiences of their violent intimate relationships. To evaluate this, a literature review on intimate partner violence and its relevant key terms was composed which detailed what intimate partner violence encompasses, and what both partners‟ roles involved therein. The women were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The methodology approach, qualitative in nature, used thematic analysis as the method of analysis to extract data from the three case studies. The relevant literature was then used to further examine and discuss the results of the study. Several themes were identified ranging from duality, relational dynamics and helplessness to these three women‟s experiences of abuse and the effects thereof. The findings depict the three women‟s realities of how they experienced their relationships with their intimate male partners, as well as the violence experienced within their relationships