Donald Dutton

Donald George Dutton (born October 9, 1943) is a Canadian psychologist who is known for his work on traumatic bonding and misattribution of arousal.

He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Toronto in 1970, and is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.

Career Dutton's research interests include the psychology of violence, social science epistemology, criminal justice, social psychological explanations for clinical syndromes, and personality disorders.

Along with his co-author Susan Painter, Dutton coined the term "traumatic bonding", referring to emotional attachments which "develop from two specific features of abusive relationships: power imbalances and intermittent good-bad treatment".

Dutton is known for his research on intimate partner violence and the psychology of abusive behavior. Dutton has been outspoken about the reality of domestic violence, that despite stereotypes it is actually perpetrated by both men and women. The tribunal found that Dutton created a "sexualized environment" while meeting with the student at his home, although the tribunal also found the student lied. There was no evidence of any sexual contact taking place;

Books

Dutton has authored or co-authored several books on domestic violence, including The Batterer: A Psychological Profile (1995, with Susan Golant), The Abusive Personality: Violence and Control in Intimate Relationships (1998), and Rethinking Domestic Violence (2006). The Batterer has been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Polish.

The second edition of The Abusive Personality (2007) received positive reviews in academic journals. A review in the Journal of Family Therapy described it as providing "a clear, concise, authoritative and inspiring account of the empirical, theoretical and treatment literatures on relationship abusiveness." as did the academic journal Choice.