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The Violence of Men: New Techniques for Working with Abusive Families: A Therapy of Social Action. Chloe Madanes. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1995. Hardcover: $37.95; 215 pages.
The Violence of Men is written for therapists who are likely to see various forms of family violence in their practices. The book covers child physical and sexual abuse, juvenile sex offending, and partner violence. The focus of the book is, as described in the title, violence by men toward children and adult female targets.
The first two chapters describe the basic elements and theoretical foundation of Social Action therapy. In brief, Social Action therapy places primary value on individuals for behavior and behavior change. In any given circumstance, a person chooses his or her own course of action and is completely responsible for both the behavior and its effect on others. Because violence affects many others beyond the offender and victim, therapists using this system understand that therapy with offenders affects primary and secondary victims as well as the community at large. Therefore, the therapist has the responsibility to act to stop violence; in doing so, the therapist takes a moral stance to protect human rights. Such words are comforting to anyone who may be suspicious of therapeutic approaches, such as that elucidated in the present book, which advocate family and conjoint formats that bring perpetrators and victims together in the same room.
Chapter 2 lays out the basic tenets of Social Action therapy with violent offenders. These include an interactional view of behavior change as "the most efficient way of changing the person" (p. 11) and a belief that the "level of family relations" (p. 11) is where the therapist must intervene. The therapy is directive as clients are asked to do things between sessions and change is accomplished through the reorganization of family networks. Therapists also seek to heal both spiritual and emotional damage.
Chapters 3 through 7 describe the application of Social Action therapy with different types of abuse: Chapter 3 focuses on child physical abuse, together with the emotional and physical abuse of the female partner; Chapters 4,5, and 6 cover the treatment of adult child sex abusers, therapy with adult sex offenders, and the treatment of juvenile sex offenders, respectively; chapter 7 covers...