The Experience of Disgust in Women Exposed to Domestic Violence in Turkey

Abstract

In trauma, fear as a basic emotion that evokes avoidance after exposure to a traumatic event is important for posttraumatic process. Another emotion causing avoidance is disgust. Despite the fact that disgust also plays an important role in trauma, there is limited information about how it is experienced during and after exposure to the traumatic event. In this study, the aim was to understand how women experience disgust during and after domestic violence, as a prolonged and repeated traumatic experience, and how they try to cope with disgust evoking situations in this process. For this aim, qualitative methodology was used. With purposive sampling, six women exposed to domestic violence including physical, verbal and sexual abuse were interviewed. With each woman, approximately seven semi-structured interviews were completed. Forty-one interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Data was analyzed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. At the end of the analysis, three superordinate themes, namely, experience of perpetrator-directed disgust with gustatory expressions of moral disgust and association of disgust in domestic abuse to daily life experiences; experience of self-disgust with two themes of internalization of assault without awareness and contamination by sexual abuse; coping with disgust in domestic violence with four subthemes, namely, avoidance from perpetrator, reidentification of the perpetrator with substitutive identity, alienation from self, reidentification of self with new relationships were constructed. Results showed that disgust is experienced in a repressed way as a result of the aversive nature of traumatic experience. The results were evaluated in psychological, social and cultural contexts. Their implications for understanding disgust in domestic violence were discussed.

Full text

https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211013953
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
2022, Vol. 37(15-16) NP14538 –NP14563
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/08862605211013953
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Original Research
713224JIVXXX10.1177/08862605211013953Journal of Interpersonal ViolenceWalsh et al.
research-article2021
The Experience of
Disgust in Women
Exposed to Domestic
Violence in Turkey
Seray Akça,1 and Faruk Gençöz2
Abstract
In trauma, fear as a basic emotion that evokes avoidance after exposure
to a traumatic event is important for posttraumatic process. Another
emotion causing avoidance is disgust. Despite the fact that disgust also plays
an important role in trauma, there is limited information about how it is
experienced during and after exposure to the traumatic event. In this study,
the aim was to understand how women experience disgust during and after
domestic violence, as a prolonged and repeated traumatic experience, and
how they try to cope with disgust evoking situations in this process. For this
aim, qualitative methodology was used. With purposive sampling, six women
exposed to domestic violence including physical, verbal and sexual abuse
were interviewed. With each woman, approximately seven semi-structured
interviews were completed. Forty-one interviews were audio recorded
and transcribed. Data was analyzed by Interpretative Phenomenological
Analysis. At the end of the analysis, three superordinate themes, namely,
experience of perpetrator-directed disgust with gustatory expressions
of moral disgust and association of disgust in domestic abuse to daily life
experiences; experience of self-disgust with two themes of internalization of
assault without awareness and contamination by sexual abuse; coping with
disgust in domestic violence with four subthemes, namely, avoidance from
perpetrator, reidentification of the perpetrator with substitutive identity,
Corresponding Author:
Seray Akça, Yeditepe University, 34755 Istanbul, Turkey.
Email: serayakca@gmail.com
1Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey
2Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
2 Journal of Interpersonal Violence
alienation from self, reidentification of self with new relationships were
constructed. Results showed that disgust is experienced in a repressed way
as a result of the aversive nature of traumatic experience. The results were
evaluated in psychological, social and cultural contexts. Their implications
for understanding disgust in domestic violence were discussed.
Keywords
anything related to domestic violence, battered women, domestic violence,
mental health and violence, PTSD, sexual assault
Throughout the world, violence against women is a serious public issue
(World Health Organization [WHO], 2013). According to a global report,
35% of women from different regions of the world are exposed to violence,
and intimate partner violence is higher than nonpartner violence (WHO,
2013). Similarly, 42% of women in Turkey reported that they have experi-
enced violence by their partner or husband, and approximately 20% of
women reported that they have experienced nonpartner violence by their own
fathers, mothers, elder brothers, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, strangers,
and male relatives (Turkish Republic Prime Ministry Directorate General on
the Status of Women [DGSW] et al., 2009). In order from most to least,
women in Turkey are exposed to emotional, physical, or sexual violence by
their partners (Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, 2014).
Also, these results indicate that almost 38% of women are exposed to one or
both of physical and sexual violence.
Domestic violence is a form of violence committed in a family or house-
hold (Hegarty et al., 2000). Survivors can be children, parents, siblings, or
partners (Holden, 2003). It can be in different forms such as physical, sexual,
economic, social, verbal, and emotional (Hegarty et al., 2000; Yetim & Şahin,
2008). Physical violence includes threat to life and physical well-being such
as beating, or using a weapon in a threatening manner. Sexual abuse includes
coercive sexual interaction, rape, or use of sexual interaction for punishment.
Economic abuse consists of limiting basic needs for life and access to income
sources. Social abuse is committed through oppression on social self by lim-
iting freedom, or controlling the social life of others. While verbal abuse
includes humiliation, insult, and assault, emotional violence includes any
attempt to make the survivor feel down through acts such as isolation, domi-
nation, or calling by humiliating nicknames (Forke et al., 2008; Sims, 2008).
In general, domestic violence captures any coercive act that threatens the
physiological, social, and psychological integrity of a family member
(Edegbe et al., 2020).