The Submissive Wife: A Study of Stockholm Syndrome and Abuse- Cycle in Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You Or, A Portrait Of The Writer As A Young Wife
Maryam Kazim Mohammed Rashed
University of Tikrit- College of Education for Women- Department of English
Lamiaa Ahmed Rasheed
University of Tikrit- College of Education for Women- Department of English
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/lang.8.1.17
Keywords: Stockholm syndrome, abuse, emotional bond, Survival strategy, Submissive wife
Abstract
Stockholm syndrome refers to a psychological phenomenon observed in situations where individuals, typically hostages or victims, develop a deep bond or compassion for their captors or abusers. Scholars describe Stockholm syndrome as a complex emotional response where victims, despite being held against their will, start feeling positive emotions or sympathy for their captors. This paradoxical phenomenon involves hostages expressing admiration or praise for their captors, seemingly irrational given the danger they face. Victims may form emotional attachments and bonds as survival strategies fostering a connection that contradicts the apparent threat posed by their captors. The main aims of the present study are twofold. The first aim is to examine the depiction of submissive wives in the novel When I Hit You: Or A Portrait of a Writer as a Young Wife(2018) written by Meena Kandasamy; and the second, analyzing the wife’s submissiveness and acceptance of her spouse’s abuse through relating it to Stockholm syndrome and through the lens of abuse cycle theory suggested by Lenore Walker's concept of Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS), which encompasses various psychological and behavioral symptoms. The research argues that the acceptance of violence by abused victims, particularly submissive wives, should not be attributed solely to their actions, as there are numerous underlying reasons, social and psychological, for their submissiveness which will be explored thoroughly in this study.
References
Ahmad, A., Aziz, M., Anjum, G., & Mir, F. V. (2018). Intimate partner
violence and psychological distress: Mediating role of Stockholm
syndrome. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 33(2), 541557.
Alapati, P. R., Mantri, V. R. R., Kalpana Devi, G., Subba Rao, V. V.,
Venkatadri, V., & (2022). Submission to Subversion: An
Analytical Study of Meena Kandasamy's ‘When I Hit You: Or, A
Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife’. Journal Title,
Volume(Issue), Page numbers (VOL. 12 NO. 11) DOI:
Bailey, R., Dugard, J., Smith, S. F., & Porges, S. W. (2023). Appeasement:
replacing Stockholm syndrome as a definition of a survival strategy. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 14(1), 2161038.
Bancroft, L. (2002). Why does he do that? Inside the minds of angry and
controlling men. Berkley Books.
Dutton, D. G., & Painter, S. (1993). Emotional attachments in abusive
relationships: A test of traumatic bonding theory. Violence and
victims, 8(2), 105.
Cantor, C., & Price, J. (2007). Traumatic entrapment, appeasement and
complex post-traumatic stress disorder: evolutionary perspectives of
hostage reactions, domestic abuse, and the Stockholm
syndrome. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 41(5),
-384.
Chakraborty, A. (2008). Venomous touch: Meena Kandasamy and the poetics of Dalit resistance. Postcolonial Text, 4(4), 3.
Gillette, Hope. (2022). ''The 4 Stages of the Cycle of Abuse: From Tension to Calm and Back. Medically''. Psychology. 15 July.
Cramer, E. P. (2018). Battered Woman Syndrome. In R. T. R. Dodge (Ed.),
Encyclopedia of Criminal Psychology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Gelles, R.A., & Straus, M.A. (1988). Intimate violence. New York:
Touchstone.
George, V. (2015). Traumatic bonding and intimate partner violence.
Graham, D. L., Rawlings, E. I., Ihms, K., Latimer, D., Foliano, J., Thompson, A., ... & Hacker, R. (1995). A scale for identifying" Stockholm syndrome" reactions in young dating women: Factor structure, reliability, and validity. Violence and victims, 10(1), 3.
Hightower, E. (2017). An exploratory study of personality factors related to
psychological abuse and gaslighting (Doctoral
dissertation, William James College).
Hooper, L. M. & Jankowski, P. J. (2014). Stockholm Syndrome. Models of Psychopathology: Generational Processes and Relational Roles, 99-115.
Kandasamy, M. (2018). When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait Of The Writer As
A Young Wife. Atlantic Books.
Kashyap, D. T. (2018). Feminist Study in Meena Kandasamy’s Novels' When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife and The Gypsy Goddess. Research Journal of English Language and Literature. (RJELAL)'6, 3.
Kesarwani, R. (2023). The voice of protest: Meena Kandasamy's When
I Hit You: Or A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife.
Unpublished manuscript. Government Girls' P.G. College, Ghazipur,
U.P.
Klein, C. (2013). The Birth of “Stockholm Syndrome,” 40 Years Ago. Birth.
Mamgain, K., &Khan, N. (2021). Digital Abuse in ‘When I Hit You by Meen
Kandasamay. European Journal of Natural and Social Sciences-
Novus, 1(01), 010001EJNSS.
Martin, R. (2018, September 28). The Real-Life Horrors Behind 'When
I Hit You'. NPR.https://www.npr.org/2018/09/28/652173756/the- real- life- horrors-behind-when-i-hit-you
Norris, S. (2017, August). When I Hit You: An Interview with Meena
Kandasamy. Mslexia. URL:[https://mslexia.co.uk/when-i-hit-you- interview-meena-kandasamy.
Sarkar, S. (2020). Understanding the nuances of gaslighting in intimate partner violence. Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, 42(5), 467-471. https://doi.org/10.4103/IJPSYM.IJPSYM_319_20
Sehgal, P. (2018, June 21). "How a Novel About a Young Writer’s Marriage
Became a Literary Sensation". The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/books/review/meena-
kandasamy-when-i-hit-you.html.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1975). Helplessness: on depression, development, and
death. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman.
Self. J (25 Nov,2019) Interview Meena Kandasamy: ‘If I was going to write
my life story, I would condense that marriage to a footnote’.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/25/meena-
kandasamy-interview-exquisite-cadavers.
Shaik, F. (2021). Self-identity of women in the select novels of Anees Jung.
Sharma, R. (2017, May 18). ‘When I Hit You’ Is a Devastating Account of
Marital Violence and a Writer’s Right to Choose Her Story. The
Wire. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/books/when-i-hit-you-meena-kandasamy-marital-violence.
Walker, L. E. (1977). Who are the battered women? Frontiers: A journal of
women studies, 52-57.
------, L. E. A. (1979). The battered woman. New York, NY: Harper &
Row.
-------, L.E.A. (1991). Abused women, infants, and substance abuse: Psychological consequences of failure to protect. In P.R. McGrab & D.M. Doherty (Eds.), Mothers, infants, and substance abuse: Proceedings of the APA Division 12, Midwinter Meeting, Scottsdale, AZ, January 19–20.
-------, L. E. (2009). Abused Women and Survivor Therapy Practical Guide for the Psychotherapist. American Psychological Association.
Wallace, P. (2007). How can she still love him? Domestic violence and the
Stockholm syndrome. Community Practitioner, 80(10), 32-35.