Possession

Margot Giblin

Headline commanding instances of sustained and planned subjection are described as the work of monsters. This puts them in a stand-alone category which fails to make the connection with a million smaller crimes humans commit against each other every day in the same vein.

A DISTRESSING story of apparent domestic violence is being reported from Amstetten in Austria. The focus is on the logistics of how it occurred.
The question of why it occurred should get equal attention.

The belief that family members own each other is destructive.

Many adults and children, worldwide and here in Tasmania have suffered, and continue to do so, at the hands of those who regard them as personal possessions.

This attitude runs the full gamut from the relatively innocuous, if annoying, habit of partners who interrupt to speak over and for each other, to parents telling their children what they should do with their lives.

Adult relationships that started with a declaration of love finish when this is seen as a license to order each other around, criticise, undermine and abuse each other.

Headline commanding instances of sustained and planned subjection are described as the work of monsters. This puts them in a stand-alone category which fails to make the connection with a million smaller crimes humans commit against each other every day in the same vein.

The idea of the family being a safe place still has traction. It is clear that what goes on behind closed doors and from positions of trust is often a far greater threat than stranger danger. It is also clear that those who are living in fear and danger of criminal abuse do not need secrecy to prevent help reaching them.

It is not enough to suspect that a child or adult is in danger of abuse for action to be taken by authorities. For good reason there must be some corroborative proof or some declaration by the victim or potential victim. The wait for hard evidence can mean intervention doesn’t occur until shocking damage has been done.

It is the mindset of possession that needs addressing, urgently.