TY - JOUR T1 - Domestic violence in context JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 469 LP - 469 VL - 56 IS - 527 AU - Mike Fitzpatrick Y1 - 2006/06/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/527/469.2.abstract N2 - The discussion of domestic violence, now relabelled ‘intimate partner violence’, that has assumed such prominence in this — and other — medical journals suffers from a lack of historical and sociological perspective. The concepts of ‘abuse’ and its presumed sequelae of ‘low self-esteem’ and ‘post-traumatic stress syndrome’ are taken at face value instead of being understood as recently constructed categories that provide a framework for the reinterpretation of personal experience at a particular historical moment.Over the past decade an obsession with abuse as a pervasive feature of all intimate relationships has risen to acquire an extraordinary prominence in Western society. It is now widely accepted that diverse forms of intimidation and exploitation are commonplace — if not universal — in relationships between sexual partners (including same sex relationships and male … ER -