Author Description

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.