Transforming the Self: Metaphors Used by Israeli Abused Women

Freeing the self from ongoing intimate partner violence is only part of overcoming its harmful consequences. Changes in the experience of abused women and their phenomenological world following separation or divorce from the perpetrator is essential for the process of recovery. This study analyzed the metaphors used by abused women to describe their lifeworld in violence and the processes experienced after the divorce, including transformation and emerging resilience. It was based on semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 12 women aged 33–55 years. They had been married for 5–30 years and were interviewed at least 5 years after divorcing their violent partners. Interpretive phenomenological analysis of the metaphors identified two key processes of change in the lifeworld of the women: (a) movement from emotional numbness and alienation from the self to reconnecting and (b) movement from couplehood based on men's control of decision-making to a sense of control and trust in their ability to cope and orient themselves in the world. The discussion focuses on the abused women's meaning-making, identifying a dialectical process between past and present.