Intimate Partner Violence in a Heterosexual Marriage: Case Study of a Korean Couple

This study explores an abusive wife's symptoms and risk factors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in a heterosexual relationship. A qualitative approach, using a conceptual cluster network, was used to analyse the family therapy case of a wife abusing her husband. Findings indicate that the wife's IPV-related symptoms included victim mentality, despair, depression, insomnia, aggression, and the desire to divorce the husband. The wife's risk factors were present at the personal, family-relational, and sociocultural levels. This study indicates that therapists counselling violent Korean couples may explore couples' communication styles, undifferentiation of self, transference, the culture of filial piety, and the influence of Confucian culture.