Similarities between strategies used by Chinese captors in the Korean War and wife batterers are psychological abuse in the context of violence, the use of emotional dependency based on intermittent reinforcement, and isolation from the victim's support system resulting in validation of assailant's beliefs and behavior. Both captors and batterers destroy the victim's self-identity and elicit and control certain behaviors when the victim is isolated from a democratic setting. Differences in the experiences of POW's and battered wives center in the type of hierarchical structure within which the abuse occurs. In the case of battered wives, a patriarchal family legitimates male domination over women. The violence thus occurs within a sexist perspective. 36 references. (Author abstract modified)