Treating The Adult Survivor Of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Psychoanalytic Perspective / Edition 1

by Jody Messler Davies, Mary Gail Frawley

Overview

Entering the tumultuous, dissociated world of the adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse presents an intimidating challenge for clinicians. But as the authors of this innovative book argue, therapists must be willing and able to work within the powerful and rapidly shifting relational paradigms of transference and countertransference commonly found in treatment of these patients. Such dual roles enacted in treatment include the unseeing, uninvolved parent and the unseen, neglected child; the sadistic abuser and the helpless, enraged victim; the idealized rescuer and the entitled child; and the seducer and the seduced.This is the first model for 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. Diverging from a more classical perspective, the authors view dissociation as the means by which a person adapts to and expresses traumatogenic material and by which such patients defend against traumatic memories, affects, and fantasy elaborations emerging into consciousness. The authors also detail how dissociation helps organize the patient's personality and presentation of self.Richly illustrated case examples bring to life the authors' treatment model and show how clinicians can work through the relational paradigms between patient and therapist and, ultimately, reach the core of the patient's deeply buried experiences of self and other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465066339
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/21/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	210,394
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.88(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jody Messler Davies, Ph.D., is a faculty member and clinical supervisor at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University, and at Columbia University's Teachers College. She is also a clinical supervisor at the Center for the Study of Abuse and Incest, Manhattan Institute of Psychoanalysis, and a faculty member at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. Mary Gail Frawley, Ph.D., is adjunct clinical professor at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University, and at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

What People are Saying About This

Stephen A. Mitchell

"An invaluable guide to the tangled maze of conceptual and technical problems involved in treating survivors of childhood sexual abuse."

Jessica Benjamin

"An immense achievement."

Editorial Reviews

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 c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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