Group Therapy for Women Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Sexual abuse of a child is a special form of trauma. As McCarthy (1986) has reported, it probably begins at a much younger age than the child remembers, so that he or she grows up accepting that this is part of life. It is an important part of the environment which affects the child's psychic development. It usually occurs against the background of a cold, sick or absent mother, and a family in which there is little true affection or understanding. It is often accompanied by physical abuse. There may also be an element of psychological abuse which has been called `soul murder' (Shengold, 1979; Miller,1983; Hall, 1987). But even without this-there will always be confusion in the child's mind, `How CAN he do this to me, when he is a grown-up, respected by the other grown-ups, and should love and protect me?' or, `How can my parent ALLOW him to do this to me?' The mystification is increased if the perpetrator is the one person in the family who has given the child any genuine affection.