Psychoanalysis and child sexual abuse: A review of the post-Freudian literature.

Abstract

This article reviews the post-Freudian psychoanalytic literature that focuses on child sexual abuse. Most of the articles reviewed are case presentations; there is little new theoretical work and few empirical studies. The present review focuses on the nature and effects of abuse; the parental dynamics in incestuous families; treatment issues and outcomes; and theory. The review results in the following observations: (a) Father-daughter incest is the form of abuse most frequently indicated in these articles; (b) little literature exists on the abuse of boys; (c) the effects of sexual abuse are often serious and enduring; (d) little literature exists on treatment issues, specifically whether and how analysis should be modified with the sexually abused population; (e) there is no consensus about what is curative; and (f) treatment outcomes vary widely. Although contributions to the psychoanalytic literature on child sexual abuse have increased dramatically in the last 10 years, further investigation is indicated. The article concludes with a discussion of some areas for additional work.The subject of child sexual abuse has played a pivotal and provocative role in the history of psychoanalytic thought. Freud's "seduction theory" acknowledged the pervasiveness of sexual abuse; however, Freud had great difficulty reconciling this theory with his evolving concept of the child's inner fantasy life (Freud, 1905a(Freud, , 1905b. Thus, by the turn of the century, memories of seduction were conceptualized largely as fantasy instead of actual trauma, and the theory of psychosexual development-crucial to Freud's subsequent work and the cornerstone of classical analysis-was born. Although Freud apparently retained a belief in the reality of sexual trauma, the motivation was shifted from adults to the seductive behavior of the child.Literature detailing the seduction theory and the shift to the theory of Requests for reprints should be sent to Elizabeth Krimendahl Wolf, MA,

Butterfly and Carnivorous Plant: In-between Imaging of Borderline Functioning

“…What just said could be thought as born by confusion of tongues [13], leading to freudian hilflosigkeit but also making a link matching Otto Kernberg and Sandor Ferenczi. Misunderstanding is what confusion of tongues speak about: Tenderness language is denied, and passion language speak instead. In an interpersonal dimension of adult toward child, love and its attachment needs diverge: They calls for a lack of representation, of an "inner place" to be set in.…”

“…In an interpersonal dimension of adult toward child, love and its attachment needs diverge: They calls for a lack of representation, of an "inner place" to be set in. Then defense mechanisms of child and adult get each other involved representing complex relational dynamic of a traumatic situation in-between child and its reference figure [13].…”

Freud's shift from the seduction theory: Some overlooked reality factors.

“…There are claims that because Freud supposedly ignored the role of the transgressors in cases of childhood sexual abuse, patients of subsequent analysts have been mistreated (Masson, 1984;Miller, 1984;Wolf & Alpert, 1991). The "claimers" ignore the probability that strong countertransference issues determined the behavior of the analysts whom they criticize.…”

The abuser and the abused: Sources of resistance to resolving splits in the countertransference in the treatment of adults who were sexually abused as children.

“…A schism similar to the one I have just been describing between members of a treatment team shows up in the recent literature on the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse. Tabin (1993) noted that in each of several panel discussions on the topic of childhood sexual abuse at the 1991 meetings of the American Psychological Association either one of the panelists or someone speaking from the floor delivered a polemic about Freud's supposed abandonment of the victims of abuse, (p. 291) So, for example, Wolf and Alpert (1991), in a fine review of the literature on psychoanalysis and child sexual abuse, contended "it is likely that the scarcity of psychoanalytic literature on sexual abuse prior to the last ten years is a ramification of Freud's reconceptualization of seduction as fantasy" (p. 306). Putting it more strongly, Davies and Frawley (1991) asserted that "many classical analysts persist in this denial of the realities of childhood sexual abuse, a denial we believe to be unconscionable" (p. 6).…”