Masculinities, violence and defended psychosocial subjects

Against `structured action theory' and the `discourses of violence' approach this article argues for a psychoanalytic interpretive approach to reading violent men's accounts of their lives. Using material from a single case study the author challenges the idea that violence towards women is necessarily `masculinity accomplishing' and suggests how an approach which theorizes both the social and psychic can be deployed to address the issue of `change'. The strengths and limitations of positing a defended psychosocial subject in the research process are also discussed.