Adult Analysis And Childhood Sexual Abuse

Following a case study approach organized around the psychoanalytic process, this book addresses clinical issues that arise in analytic work with adults who were sexually abused as children. Special emphasis is given to the way in which childhood sexual trauma affects the treatment process and influences the contents and quality of transference. Contributors also focus on the formation of the therapeutic alliance, countertransference issues, and disturbances in ego functions.

Presents a model for the treatment of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse that takes advantage of a relational approach and that integrates psychoanalytic thinking with the latest findings from the literature on psychological trauma and sexual abuse. Case examples illustrate the authors' treatment model. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Published in 1999, this book is based on major research projects in Britain, Canada and Australia on the meaning, nature and impact of child sexual abuse. Theoretical perspectives include a consideration of the contextualisation of knowledge about child abuse; how sexual abuse may be embedded within other types of family pathology; and a feminist perspective on patriarchy and adolescent prostitution. The book also contains an important chapter with new data on male sexual offenders, and on men and women who kill children. A chapter on men who kill themselves when faced with accusations of child sexual abuse offers a humanistic perspective on the problem. Further chapters on social work processing of child sexual abuse cases, and of group treatment for victims point to further directions in research, policy and practice.

This Handbook gathers together empirical and theoretical chapters from leading scholars and clinicians to examine the broad issue of adult mental health. The contributors draw upon data from a variety of contexts to illustrate the multiple ways in which language as action can assist us in better understanding the discursive practices that surround adult mental health. Conversation and discourse analysis are useful, related approaches for the study of mental health conditions, particularly when underpinned by a social constructionist framework. In the field of mental health, the use of these two approaches is growing, with emergent implications for adults with mental health conditions, their practitioners, and/or their families. Divided into four parts; Reconceptualising Mental Health and Illness; Naming, Labelling and Diagnosing; The Discursive Practice of Psychiatry; and Therapy and Interventions; this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current debates regarding adult mental health.

This book presents a coherent and readable narrative review of current views on the effects and role of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the treatment of children and adults who have experienced childhood abuse and neglect. Recent decades have seen an explosion of research into the extent of child abuse and into the effects of early relational trauma on the developing minds and brains of children. The lasting effects on survivors are increasingly recognized and can be addressed psychotherapeutically. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy After Child Abuse is unique in two ways. Firstly, in bringing together for the first time the considerable scientific evidence of effectiveness and the vast body of accumulated clinical experience using psychoanalytical approaches in the treatment of people who have experienced childhood abuse. Secondly, in being the product of the widest collaboration of individuals and organizations concerned about the effects of child abuse, and experts on child abuse and psychotherapy. These include experts by experience, survivor groups, activists, academics, and clinicians: paediatricians, physicians, child and adult psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, and psychoanalytic psychotherapists.

Each year, child protective services receive reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many more go unreported. The long-term human and fiscal consequences of child abuse and neglect are not relegated to the victims themselves -- they also impact their families, future relationships, and society. In 1993, the National Research Council (NRC) issued the report, Under-standing Child Abuse and Neglect, which provided an overview of the research on child abuse and neglect. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research updates the 1993 report and provides new recommendations to respond to this public health challenge. According to this report, while there has been great progress in child abuse and neglect research, a coordinated, national research infrastructure with high-level federal support needs to be established and implemented immediately. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research recommends an actionable framework to guide and support future child abuse and neglect research. This report calls for a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to child abuse and neglect research that examines factors related to both children and adults across physical, mental, and behavioral health domains--including those in child welfare, economic support, criminal justice, education, and health care systems--and assesses the needs of a variety of subpopulations. It should also clarify the causal pathways related to child abuse and neglect and, more importantly, assess efforts to interrupt these pathways. New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research identifies four areas to look to in developing a coordinated research enterprise: a national strategic plan, a national surveillance system, a new generation of researchers, and changes in the federal and state programmatic and policy response.

Childhood Sexual Abuse critically reviews research into and provides a concise and clear guide to our current knowledge on the topic. The issues covered include: the prevalence of child sexual abuse; who molests children; the effects of such abuse, both immediate and long-term; the risk factors for abuse; and the influences and interventions that may amplify or ameliorate the impact of child sexual abuse on the victim. Areas of debate, such as the false memory syndrome, are approached in terms of the research data relevant to their resolution. This volume sets out to inform rather than advocate, discusses the methodologies of research as well as their results, highlights the limitations and the extent of current information, and points out how we can learn more about child sexual abuse.

"Victims of Abuse addresses the growing trivialization of psychic trauma by such concepts as co-dependency or "the adult children of...," which seem to blame all adult problems on the external environment. Certainly the growing awareness that certain forms of abuse are more common than may have been realized in the past makes the temptation to fall back on such cliches understandable. But psychoanalysis as a theory and technique that attempts to integrate concepts of inner and outer reality has much to offer toward clarifying the clinical and conceptual problems that afflict the phenomena of trauma and abuse." "The psychoanalysts contributing to Victims of Abuse include many of the most eminent clinicians in this area. They offer many practical as well as innovative perspectives to help therapists grappling with the many obstacles to helping traumatized patients transcend their difficulties. This volume is not meant to be the final answer to the array of problems posed by the traumatized patient; instead it aims to be heuristic and to expand on recent psychoanalytic attempts to integrate such psychopathology into a theoretical framework that usually emphasizes the internal determinants of neurotic symptoms and character problems. Furthermore, it broadens the emphasis on childhood abuse, particularly sexual abuse, to consider other types and developmental origins of trauma. Thus, common traumas of adulthood that confront the practicing clinician including the battered spouse syndrome and posttraumatic stress in the work place are covered in Part I." "Part II presents detailed discussions of the treatment complications posed by these patients. Chapters offer suggestions for dealing with the tendency of traumatized patients to enact, to draw the therapist into boundary violations, and to stir up a host of other countertransference difficulties, and the contributors demonstrate the ability to use a psychoanalytically informed therapy, if not actual psychoanalysis." "In short, this book will be of great help to practicing clinicians, both those who specialize in the treatment of such patients and those whose practices bring them into only occasional contact with them. It clearly shows the need to integrate an understanding of the inner and outer realities of these patients and to help them synthesize what are often compartmentalized dimensions of experience."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved