Psychological Violence: its definition and its representation according tosex

This article presents the main results of a qualitative study, aiming at th e representations of psychological violence according to the gender. This s ubtle form of conjugal violence has been the object of a few studies in the past, mostly quantitative. Many researchers have actually tried to measure the concept and to disclose its incidence. Here, the authors go back to a former level of conceptualization and try to define, in a more global manne r, the process and the components of this form of violence. First, a review of the definitions of psychological violence, taken from previous research es, is presented. The authors introduce the main methodological aspects. Th e analysis of interviews allow to study how men and women envision psycholo gical violence and to account for the three main components of a social rep resentation, then, a new definition of psychological violence, based on a d iscourse analysis, is put forward. Finally, the authors make a critical ana lysis of the convergences and divergences between literature and the newly acquired empirical data.