This paper provides a perspective on spouse abuse from an ecosystemic approach suggested by second order cybernetics. An attempt is made to demonstrate the interactional basis for an understanding of spouse abuse and to suggest that the failure to use an ecosystemic perspective may result in therapists and other helpers inadvertently exacerbating the problem. Borrowing from the work of Keeney and Bateson, an analysis of the relational aspects of the problem of spouse abuse is provided which illustrates the similar nature of typical intervention strategies to the problem.