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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Rachel Pain, Dr Cheryl McEwan
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2022.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Every society deploys narratives concerning the phenomenon of domestic abuse which serve to downplay and normalise it. Drawing on qualitative research with survivors in Malaysia, and working from a feminist postcolonial framework, this paper explores how the notion of demonic possession is used by survivors and perpetrators as a metaphor for domestic abuse, and a narrative to make sense of and excuse it. The idea of demonic possession has utility because of its close fit both with perpetrators’ behaviour and the symptoms experienced by survivors with trauma. The research focuses on the intimate dynamics of abuse, including coercive control and intimate captivity, and the pivotal role of possession and trauma in the successful exertion of control and in extending the damaging effects of abuse. We argue that demonic possession reflects another way in which globally endemic practices of domestic abuse are justified and explained; it provides a means for perpetrators to evade responsibility for abuse, and a way in which the pernicious effects of both abuse and trauma on survivors, their families, and wider society are sometimes dismissed. The paper highlights the significance of culturally-sensitive approaches to domestic violence and trauma as a counterpoint to western-centric understandings. It also stresses the need for locally generated approaches to awareness raising and support services in Malaysia and elsewhere.
Author(s): Sahdan Z, Pain R, McEwan C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
Year: 2022
Volume: 47
Issue: 2
Pages: 286-301
Print publication date: 01/06/2022
Online publication date: 05/08/2021
Acceptance date: 16/07/2021
Date deposited: 19/07/2021
ISSN (print): 0020-2754
ISSN (electronic): 1475-5661
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12485
DOI: 10.1111/tran.12485
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