by Tim Hollis

Created on: August 01, 2007

The Majority Whipped and Battered Wife Syndrome

I know I'm supposed to refer to this endemic illness as battered person syndrome but that would be to erroneously and without foundational precedent ascribe testicular endowment as being a plausible attribute of this majority in congress.
It may help in diagnosing the current congressional malady by observing an eerie correlation with the symptoms described below and the incomprehensible gutlessness exhibited by our ill-elected majority in congress.

Battered person syndrome
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Battered person syndrome is a physical and psychological condition that is classified as ICD-9 code 995.81 "Battered person syndrome" NEC or otherwise included within DSM-IV as a sub-category of post-traumatic stress disorder. This condition has been used as a defense by women who have experienced long-term physical and psychological abuse, and have killed their abusers. This was called battered woman syndrome by Lenore Walker (1979).
ICD9 code 995.81 [1] shows the syndrome as including "battered person/man/spouse syndrome NEC" and any person presenting with identified physical descriptors rather than psychological descriptors falls under the general heading of "Adult physical abuse", classified under "Injury and Poisoning" [2]. In lay terms, this is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse by a partner, becomes depressed and unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people often do not seek assistance from others, fight their abuser, or leave the abusive situation. Sufferers have low self-esteem, and often believe that the abuse is their fault. Such persons usually refuse to press criminal charges against their abuser, and refuse all offers of help, often becoming aggressive or abusive to others who attempt to offer assistance. Often sufferers will even seek out their very abuser for comfort shortly after an incident of abuse.
[Although the medical condition is not gender specific, the law has been persuaded to remedy perceived gender bias in the operation of the defense of self-defense by admitting evidence of the medical condition as the basis of an excuse (the "battered woman defense") for women who use excessive violence to escape from an abusive relationship and kill their abusers.

As evidenced during the past six and a half years (has it been that long?

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