Privacy in marriage is a very important part of life that should not be taken for granted nor abused by the other side. It's hard to say what his actual intentions might have been, or how innocent they might have been. If communication isn't a strong part of your marriage, he might have thought that by reading your journal he would be trying to have a better understanding of you......then again on the bad side, he might have been trying to find out anything that he could hold against you in order to abuse you in the future. No matter what the reasoning or intentions were, it is WRONG for him to invade your privacy for ANY reason......IT"S JUST WRONG.

However if there is love in your marriage & the marriage is strong, this might be the perfect situation to bring about a much closer relationship by your discussing with him your feelings about your privacy. You might be able to open up about some of the things that he read & see what actually comes of it....it might be able to pull your marriage closer rather than pushing it apart & increase the ability to communicate about deeper issues within each of you....which is what a marriage relationship should be all about

However, your statement about him beating you into opening the lock box has me bothered. Along with your statement of feeling like a prisoner in your own home with him spying on you. That doesn't sound like a healthy marriage that should even continue unless you can clear up these feelings. I would not tolerate that kind of treatment from my husband for one moment & it that is truely the way your marriage is, I would think about ending a marriage like that.

If you want to make the marriage work, then he needs to know that your privacy & your journaling are important to your mental health I would make it clear to him that from this point on, if he wants to know something about you, then he has to ask, talk, communicate, the way a healthy husband & wife relationship needs to be. You might also look into some marriage counselling so that he knows this request isn't just coming from you & that it's what is expected in a normal healthy marriage.

Yes, I would take steps to lock my information up so that there is no way he can get to it...definitely until some clear understanding & respect have been proved to exist because journaling is so important to your mental health & your continued improvement & communication with your psychologist.

Take care of your self above all else & don't let him get away with playing childish games. As long as he gets away with it & his behavior is reinforced by not requiring the respect you are owed, he will continue playing his stupid childish games & never have the need to mature, grow up & act his age.

It's hard to be strong about things like this but necessary,
Debbie