At the exact time when Boris Kollár had a scandalous press conference about one of the mothers of his children and “a few slaps,” I was attending a professional seminar on violence in close relationships. The event was organized by the Alliance of Women and led by clinical psychologist Barbora Jakobsen, who lives in Norway, hails from Prague, and is dedicated to the psychology of violence. She also leads the organization Alternative To Violence in Tromsø, where she has her clientele.
“When I studied psychology, I knew almost nothing about the psychology of violence,” Barbora said at the beginning, and she wanted to know from those present how and when they touched on the topic of violence in close relationships.
In the approximately thirty-member group, there was a psychologist who had experienced violence in childhood, psychologists from district counseling centers, and a psychologist working in prison.
“I work at the SME newspaper,” I said, “and although I no longer do that, in the past, I wrote about cases handled by social services and courts. I don’t remember a single one where violence wasn’t present, and I have seen institutional violence up close, the kind caused by state decisions of authorities and courts.”
It is quite logical that we focus on the victims of violence who need help. However, I have never written about the fact that violence can be stopped.
Read the entire article (in the Slovak language) on the SME newspaper’s website.
Aliancia žien Slovenska 