Abuse

I've often wondered where the line in the sand is drawn between victim and perpetrator.  

Having worked as a domestic violence counselor at one time, there was a great deal of focus in our trainings and in our counseling on "the cycle of abuse", which emphasizes how the patterns we learn, what shapes us, will often repeat.  Indeed, many a study can confirm this, as can innumerable victims of various forms and types of abuse and violence.  But the question I always asked myself, as we sat in trainings with a definitive black line drawn between "abuser" and "survivor(s)" was, when does one stop being a survivor and become the abuser?  Of course, some continue to be the survivor for a lifetime, swapping one abusive situation for another because they have no idea what a healthy relationship looks like.  But for the sake of this discussion, I'll be focusing on those who become the abuser.  

It's not difficult to understand that a child, raised in a home where his male role model maintains control through power and control tactics like physical and emotional or verbal abuse, is very likely to become the same kind of man when he is grown.  Domestic violence counseling aims to work through the trauma of such abuse, and help children learn what healthy relationships and behaviors are so the pattern does not repeat.  But what if the child is not fortunate enough to have this experience?  What if he grows up doing the only thing he knows how to do?  Society has little pity for the man who is abusive.  However, if is sister, who was raised in the same home, repeats the female role she saw in the cycle of abuse, society has free counseling and shelters and plenty of love and support for her.  She's been a victim, a "survivor", if I am to be politically correct, her entire life.  But the man?  The man is now a violent criminal.  Now, I wouldn't disagree with either assessment, but I think we largely forget that the man is still a victim, too.  When did it change?  At age 18?  When he kicked the family dog when he was 10, because he'd seen his father kick his mother when she disappointed him?  When he first slaps his sister out of anger because that's how he sees conflicts dealt with?  Or is it when he finally punches his girlfriend and puts her in the hospital?

The question has become more personal for me in recent years.  My mother was emotionally and verbally abusive on a regular basis, and occasionally violent.  She was raised by a mother with Bipolar Disorder and hallucinations, and a father who was a pedophile.  While she didn't talk much of her childhood, what she did say was almost never negative.  And she had her father babysit her own children.  You can guess what happened.  For years, I thought I was the only victim.  Of his grandchildren, I probably was.  It seems, however, that he abused most, if not all of his daughters.  My mother?  She claims that, if anything happened, she doesn't remember.  Only after her sister admitted to being abused, some 60 years later, did she admit that some things happened that felt awkward.  The worst of it, I truly believe she does not recall, and it is likely her brain's defense mechanism, the thing that allowed her to get through such a horrific experience without losing her mind.

Like me, she has severe OCD, as do two of her sisters.  I attribute this to a need for healthy amounts of control that we never had, and the perception of the world as a frightening place.  This kind of abuse really fucks with your mind, let me tell you.  Mother suffered other incredible traumas during her childhood, which no doubt contributed to the complete mess that she is and was.  It's a damn shame, because there was the potential for a good, caring, intelligent person there.  My dad saw it, and it's why he fell in love with her and continues to love her despite the fact that she has been as abusive to him, if not more so, than she has to me.  He clings to the good in her, as his mother clung to the good in his father, who was abusive and unfaithful.  Our childhoods shape who we are and what we become.

Just last night, I had a conversation with Mother about my childhood.  All I can say is that, much like her recollection (or lack thereof) of her own childhood experiences, it appears she has done some editing to her memories of raising me and my sister.  Clip this, paste that, and voila!  We have brand new memories that make everything seem good.  All of the bad things are hereby removed.  I suppose that is easy when I was banned from discussing my own traumatic experiences in my younger years, because they bothered her.  I always called this narcissism, and perhaps it is, but she's broken.  Hell, she's probably more broken than I am.

Is this the best life has to offer?  Abuse is so selfish, so destructive.  It takes so much, and it ruins so many lives.  Abuse doesn't just lay to waste the life of the initial victim, but creates a domino effect that takes down everything else in its path.  Which makes you want to punish abusers severely, right?

But then you remember...they were victims, too.

Mother suffers from dissociation.  I believe she also is crippled when it comes to being a whole, nurturing person.  This is probably why I rely so heavily on words; I learned how to be more than she was because of the words, even though the actions did not line up.  

Oh, to have a childhood we didn't have to recover from.