What does Dr Phil reckon.........

Dr. Phil on Causes of
Domestic Abuse and Alcohol Abuse

Commentary by
Dr. Reena Sommer

Dr. Phil devoted an entire show to the causes of domestic abuse and alcohol abuse. During this show, he featured a family struggling with the damaging effects of domestic violence associated with alcohol abuse.

This show was particularly powerful because it provided what is likely the most graphic depiction of the dynamics of domestic abuse and alchol abuse occurring together. It also illustrated the long disputed fact that women can be perpetrators of domestic violence and that their violence does not always occur in self defense. Women's initiation of domestic violence is an issue that feminist groups have long discounted maintaining that if it does occur, it is in self defense. Dr. Phil's show demonstrated that this simply is not true.

Dr. Phil pointed out that Sheila's (the wife) violence toward Steve (the husband) was likely the result of being raised in a family where Sheila observed her alcoholic father beating her mother. The intergenerational transmission of domestic abuse is well documented in family violence literature. In fact, there is strong support for the modeling of domestic abuse in the family as well as alcohol abuse. Dr. Phil suggested that Sheila may have sought out Steve who is an alcholic in order to release own rage toward her father - a rage that she has carried since she was a child. He further remarked that as a child Sheila was forced to observe her father's violence toward her mother and was helpless in making him stop.

The issue of domestic abuse being passed on from generation to generation is a serious one. The very graphic tapes of Sheila beating Steve while drunk as their two young daughters watched shows how this can happen. Sadly, these children were so frightened by what they were forced to endure with no where to escape but their bedrooms. Once can only imagine what transpired when the cameras were not present. As Sheila stated, this is what their children see as "normal"

Dr. Phil's remarks were very clear - the domestic abuse and alcohol abuse MUST STOP. He warned Sheila and Steve that if he became aware of any further instances of domestic violence to which the children were exposed that he would take action to ensure that the children were protected, His advice to the couple was to separate - for their children's protection as well as their own. He stated emphatically, that the environment in which they currently live is not suitable for the children. He stressed that alcoholism is a serious and complex disease which is extremely difficult to combat. He also stressed that Sheila had to get a handle on her anger in order to provide a safe and nurturing environment for her children.

Dr. Phil offered to assist the family with the appropriate resources if they would agree to live apart until such time as the professionals working with them felt it was safe for them to live together.