You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
To comment on IJP Open, you have automatically been assigned a Disqus profile. You can view and contribute to article discussions by clicking on the Discuss icon located in the left toolbar.
This article analyzes domestic violence by drawing on group and family psychoanalysis, notably the intra-, inter-, and transpsychic dimensions (Kaës, 1993). This violence is analyzed from the perspective of the internal groups (Kaës, 1976 ; 1980 ; 1993 ; 1994 2005) involved in transgenerational transmission (Granjon, 1987 ; 1990 ; 1998). Drawing on a paradigmatic clinical vignette, we will show that every subject is an “intersubject” (Kaës, 1993) who carries within them a conscious and unconscious form of family group. This family group carries traces of the past as well as elements marked by the negative, corresponding to some form of traumatic transmission: a “cursed unconscious imprint” (names of authors, 2020). During the formation of the couple, unconscious alliances (Kaës, 1993 ; 2009) cause these raw elements from each member's internal groups to become intertwined. This interweaving of internal groups may correspond to the moment when the flaws of filiation (Joubert, 2007) come into contact and may also be at the origin of certain situations of domestic violence. We will therefore show that all couples are part of an “intercouple” caught in a network of “genealogical and coupled echo-echolalia” links which transcend the interpsychic duality of each partner.