Identifier le contrôle coercitif et les conséquences psychosomatiques dans les violences conjugales : une analyse qualitative du vécu de quatre femmes suivies dans une unité de prise en charge du psychotraumatisme

Abstract

Introduction

Coercive control refers to a set of behaviors used by an individual to dominate, intimidate, or manipulate another person through various methods such as isolation, threats, surveillance, and deprivation of needs. This complex phenomenon, popularized by Stark (2007), has been the subject of studies for several decades (Dutton et Goodman, 2005; French et al., 1959; Okun, 1986). If coercive control is not detected or if it is identified too late, the insufficiently protected victim will then suffer physical and psychological health consequences. The repetition and cumulative effect of violence worsen over time, hindering victims in the judicial processing of the violence they have experienced.

Objective

This study aims to provide a clinical illustration of coercive control and its somatopsychic consequences in women victims of intimate partner violence perpetrated by their partner. We conducted a qualitative analysis of clinical interviews from four psychological follow-ups representing women victims of intimate partner violence followed within a psycho-trauma unit in the Île-de-France region.

Results

The synthetic restitution of the clinical vignettes presented highlights the establishment of coercive control early in the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, with a range of behaviors triggering early micro-management of verbal and psychological violence, establishing a continuum from the beginning and evolving throughout the relationship, including after separation.

Conclusion

Training professionals in identifying mechanisms of coercive control could enable early systematic screening in the medical-psycho-social-judicial sector and propose concrete preventive actions against intimate partner violence and femicides. It could also facilitate the dissemination in France of a coercive control screening scale, as suggested by the team (Wilson, 2022; Wilson et Fritz, 2023) in their work with which we wish to collaborate in France.