Hello, dear friends. Something of an argument came up recently in another thread, and I'd like to open up an in-depth discussion on the subject. I'd like for this to be an open dialogue where we can share and discuss ideas, hopefully with the end goal of understanding the subject at a deeper level and learning or developing strategies to handle these situations in real life.

So, abusive relationships. Feel free to add any comment you like, but a few questions I had in mind:

--> Can abuse be prevented? How, and by whom?

--> What power, if any, does the victim have in the relationship?

--> What do you think are some myths about abusive relationships that are damaging?

--> Why do you believe someone would become abusive? Can we lead them to change? If so, how?

--> How does one recover from an abusive relationship?

--> On a broader, societal level, what do you think of the perception of the abuser/victim dichotomy? How do you think abusers are perceived? How do you think victims are perceived? Is it accurate? Does that matter?

These are just some questions I had, so again, feel free to add whatever you like, or pose more questions. I'm not going to give my input yet, because I don't want to feel like I'm leading the conversation or influencing anyone else's opinions. That wouldn't be dialectic.