Retaliate first: Memory, humiliation and male violence

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which memory and humiliation can shape the social engagement of persistently violent men. Drawing upon field data from two of our previous ethnographic studies conducted in the North East of England, we hope to make a few basic points about the importance of emotion and memory as constitutive and dynamic components in the core of identity. Focusing on the emotional ‘feelings’ of humiliation and regret, we will outline how violent incidents or verbal challenges from earlier stages of the individual’s life-course can be drawn upon, both directly and indirectly, as motivational and justificatory instruments in potentially violent interactions in the here and now. The intention is to propose what might be important psychosocial elements of Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and how an exposition of these elements might further our understanding of subjective violence.