The Abusive Personality: Violence and Control in Intimate Relationships

This text goes into greater depth and covers issues more technically than does the similar volume, titled "The Batterer: A Psychological Profile", by the same author. The content of "The Abusive Personality" is much the same, but "The Batterer" is written for non-professionals. If one is a mental-health, social-work, or other type of professional, or if one enjoys studying materials aimed at such, this is a very informative read. The general reader, though, would probably gain more from reading "The Batterer".

Learned behavior truly IS only part of the recipe for making an abuser. Attachment has been known to be crucial to social development and quality of relationships for many years (from Ainsworth and Bowlby to the present), so it is wonderful for one book to tie in the research. Wonderful asset for all counselors.

The Abusive Personality is simply the best book written on domestic violence perpetrators and one of the best on the entire field of psychology. Dutton has integrated a variety of psychological perspectives (attachment theory, object relations, social learning theory, trauma reactions) into a compelling and well reasoned profile of the development and behavior of abusive men. Dutton was the Prosecution expert in the OJ Simpson trial. If you read this book, you'll wish he had taken the stand.

What an excellent book! It goes step by step into what leads up to an abusive personality. I was also impressed by his mentioning that a battering relationship is like a hostage relationship, and the dynamics of that. I learned a lot. I feel that this would be a wonderful textbook. Easy to read, simple and to the point, and a lot of information in a fairly short book

Your topic is great , it gives reise to a sickness in Amrican culturers, that goes beyond gender and color, or socioeccnomic and other demographics, and I find it refeshing that the subject is open for review and discussion Evelyn T. Woodson Valrico Florida Victim Services.