Violence: The malignancy of our times! Is there hope?

Abstract

The article presents the 1992 Karen Horney Lecture of Elissa Benedek. The author argues that violence is analogous to malignancy, that we woefully underrate how much violence hurts. Domestic violence, for example, has emerged only recently from a cultural blind spot generated from consensual ignorance, fear, and helplessness. Spousal violence, along with child and elder abuse, are recent discoveries. Benedek places the matter squarely before us as the ultimate human degradation.