Speaking Through Silence: The Lonelification at the Core of Domestic Abuse

Abstract

This article is based on narratives from 20 women who have experienced domestic violence and abuse (DVA). Based on in-depth interviews, we explored their lived experiences of the mechanisms and meanings of loneliness in the context of DVA. The women experienced social and existential loneliness, not as passive consequences of victimization, but through active isolating and lonely-making tactics inflicted on them by the abusers, as well as through responses from personal and professional networks and institutions. We present the concept lonelification to offer a framework for the understanding of lonely-making as a core aspect of DVA, which targets women's sense of self, reality, and connectedness.