Understanding Sexual Revictimization of Women Through Metaphors: A Qualitative Research |
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Authors: | Galit Ben-Amitay Eli Buchbinder Paz Toren |
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Affiliation: | 1. Tel-Aviv Brull Community Mental Health Center, Child and Adolescents Outpatient Clinic, Tel-Aviv, Israelgbenamit@post.tau.ac.il;3. School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel;4. Tel-Aviv Brull Community Mental Health Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel- Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel |
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Abstract: | The aim of this study was to contribute to the phenomenological understanding of revictimization through metaphors used by women when describing their revictimization experiences. Data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews with 9 women regarding their repeated sexual victimization. Content analysis focused on metaphors used by the women when describing revictimization. Analysis of the metaphors revealed vulnerability in relation to the self and to interpersonal relationships. The metaphors relating to the self are portrayed through images of imprisonment, homelessness, contamination, and disability. Interpersonal relationships are described through the image of boundaries. These metaphors reflect duality: the profound need for security and the perception of boundaries as limiting and confining. Metaphors can be useful as a heuristic instrument for understanding women’s experience of the duality and the contradictions in coping with revictimization, and for intervention. |
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Keywords: | metaphor qualitative research revictimization sexual abuse |
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