InStyle
By Kimberly Truong
July 8, 2019
Content warning: This article contains mentions of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Excerpt:
At the start of the second season of Big Little Lies, Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) goes to see her therapist, Dr. Reisman (Robin Weigert). Not only is she grappling with her grief over the death of her husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgård), she’s working through the complicated feelings of loving and missing him, despite his physical and emotional abuse.
For us, the viewers, it might even have been a relief to see Perry pushed to his demise at the end of Season 1 after he repeatedly attacked Celeste, but the reality of an abusive relationship is much more complicated.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men in the U.S. report having experienced severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime — and those experiences can vary greatly. But Tarsha McCallum, LMSW, senior director of shelters at Safe Horizon, says it’s common for survivors of abuse to still love and care for their abusers.