This study seeks to understand how life history has an effect on the partner choice of women who suffers domestic violence and the factors that contribute for them to tolerate the repetition of an unacceptable behavior. The study included 12 women, aged over 18, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, education, who suffered domestic violence perpetrated by their intimate partners. The victims were found at two Reference Centers for Victims of Violence in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. The participants filled out a Personal and Socio-demographic Form and answered to a Semi-structured Interview. The interviews were analyzed and categorized using the technique of content analysis. For the interpretation of the data, the psychoanalytic theory was used. The studied topics allow us to understand domestic violence as a result of a life history marked by traumatic experiences that move these women, through the compulsion to repeat, to perform partner choices that provide a violent scenario.
Partner choice; domestic violence; psychoanalytic theory