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.

"The reasonable, fair-minded, and serious study of the effects of childhood sexual abuse on adult analysis may be of value to clinicians who have not been alert to the possibility of actual abuse by parents or caretakers.  The book is a sober, careful, respectful consideration of a potentially explosive topic."

- Arlene Kramer Richards, Ed.D., Psychoanalytic Books

"The clinical issues and technical problems that are unique to this patient population are thoroughly explored in the cases; theoretical discussions provide an understanding of this special area within the framework of the widening scope of indications for psychoanalysis and the potential for definitive treatment.  I would heartily recommend this book; I believe we will be seeing a great deal more of patients like these."

- David W. Kreuger, M.D., Contemporary Psychology

"Given the history of the interrelationship between psychoanalysis and the subject of incest, it is incumbent on all analysts to spend some time with this book.  We cannot afford to do otherwise.  Nonpsychoanalytic clinicians will also be enriched by the extraordinary understanding of the sequelae of incest that the authors provide.  The time has come for analysts to integrate the role of real trauma with the equally powerful role of fantasy in the pathogenesis of illness.  This book constitutes a giant stride in that direction."

- Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic