Few would argue that the experience of sexual abuse is deeply traumatic for a child. But in this explosive new book, psychologist Susan Clancy reports on years of research and contends that it is not the abuse itself that causes trauma—but rather the narrative that is later imposed on the abuse experience. Clancy demonstrates that the most common feeling victims report is not fear or panic, but confusion. Because children don’t understand sexual encounters in the same ways that adults do, they normally accommodate their perpetrators— something they feel intensely ashamed about as adults. The professional assumptions about the nature of childhood trauma can harm victims by reinforcing these feelings. Survivors are thus victimized not only by their abusers but also by the industry dedicated to helping them. Path-breaking and controversial, The Trauma Myth empowers survivors to tell their own stories, and radically reshapes our understanding of abuse and its aftermath.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As a graduate student at Harvard, Clancy (Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens) was warned by a respected psychiatrist not to challenge the "dominant theoretical framework" regarding sexual abuse, which "fosters and supports the notion that sexual abuse involves fear, force, and coercion" (she's even been accused by peers of hurting victims with her research). But in consequent research on the traumatic effects of sexual abuse, spanning 10 years, Clancy and colleagues found that victims seldom reported "fear, shock, force, or violence at the time the abuse occurred." Rather, trauma arises in the act's aftermath, when victims who were betrayed by trusted authority figures (90 percent of children victims know their abuser) blame themselves for failing to resist effectively-failing to register the "fear" or "violence" in the moment, which always involves more complex factors and feelings than the popular framework accounts for. The shocking body of statistics on sexual abuse-involving one in five women and one in 10 men, at an average victim age of 10 years-and growing attention to PTSD could garner broad interest for this nuanced psychological study.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Clancy argues the controversial position that survivors of childhood sexual abuse are victimized not only by their abusers, whose acts often leave them more confused (due to incomprehension) than frightened, but also and inadvertently by well-intentioned health professionals, whose interpretations of abusive experiences are often more traumatic than actual events and effects. Well-meaning practitioners emphasize abuse’s violence, fear, and threats, which “do not characterize the experiences that most victims have.” Challenging the traumatogenic model’s assumptions and origins, Clancy questions the “repression” concept of “recovered” memories as oddly selective compared to conceptions of other major traumas. Skillfully interweaving case studies, statistics, and technical data, she disputes that abusive acts destabilize neurobiology as in other traumas. Positing that the trauma model damages victims with inaccurate predictions and ineffective treatments, she recommends tracking consequences via cognitive, behavioral, and developmental pathways because “what hurts most victims is not the experience itself but the meaning of the experience—how victims make sense of what happened . . . how these understandings make them feel about themselves and others.” --Whitney Scott
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
134 of 177 people found the following review helpful
By MysticPoet
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am astounded by the negative reviews of this book. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a veteran of many years of therapy, I found this book to be one of the most healing and affirming that I have ever read on the subject. I can only conclude that many of the reviewers have not actually read the book.
This book is extremely clear, very well-written, and deeply compassionate. Ms. Clancy reiterates again and again how much damage is done to children who are sexually abused. Nowhere in this book does she suggest or imply that the sexual abuse of children is less than horrible, or that its victims do not suffer or are not hurt.
She simply points out that for many victims (not all, and she makes this clear as well) the abuse when it happens is not, to the child, "traumatic" in the ordinary sense of that word. I was abused by a relative whom I deeply loved and trusted, and the abuse was not violent, unpleasant, or terrifying in any way at the time it occurred. In fact, it occurred in the context of this relative providing me with comfort over other events happening my life which were traumatic (a violent alcoholic parent).
It was years before I was able to begin to sort out my deep confusion, shame and pain over all of this. I'm still sorting it out, and Clancy's book has felt to me like a beam of light illuminating what happened to me and giving me a fresh and healing perspective on it and a way to reframe it that makes so much good sense to me.
I feel that some of these reviews are knee-jerk reactions to what they think the book is saying, rather than a response to a careful reading.
This book is extremely clear, very well-written, and deeply compassionate. Ms. Clancy reiterates again and again how much damage is done to children who are sexually abused. Nowhere in this book does she suggest or imply that the sexual abuse of children is less than horrible, or that its victims do not suffer or are not hurt.
She simply points out that for many victims (not all, and she makes this clear as well) the abuse when it happens is not, to the child, "traumatic" in the ordinary sense of that word. I was abused by a relative whom I deeply loved and trusted, and the abuse was not violent, unpleasant, or terrifying in any way at the time it occurred. In fact, it occurred in the context of this relative providing me with comfort over other events happening my life which were traumatic (a violent alcoholic parent).
It was years before I was able to begin to sort out my deep confusion, shame and pain over all of this. I'm still sorting it out, and Clancy's book has felt to me like a beam of light illuminating what happened to me and giving me a fresh and healing perspective on it and a way to reframe it that makes so much good sense to me.
I feel that some of these reviews are knee-jerk reactions to what they think the book is saying, rather than a response to a careful reading.
124 of 171 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Clancy's Own Research Contradicts the "findings" of her Book, "The Trauma Myth"
February 1, 2010
Format:Kindle Edition
Clancy uses circular reasoning to conclude that sexual abuse is not traumatic in her book, "The Trauma Myth".
Her book is based in part on an article she co-authored with Richard J. McNally, entitled, " 'Who Needs Repression? Normal Memory Processes Can Explain Forgetting' of Childhood Sexual Abuse", published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice (2005/2006, Fall/Winter 4(2)).
In this study, Clancy asked 27 adults who reported sexual abuse as children to rate their levels of trauma at the time of their abuse on a 10-point scale, with #10 to indicate "extremely traumatic" and #1 to indicate "not traumatic at all". The average rating was 7.5.
Any logical person would consider 7.5 on a 10-point scale to be quite high.
Not Susan Clancy!
She concluded that child sexual abuse "experiences were unpleasant, distressing, or confusing, but not traumatic (e.g., terrifying) at the time they occurred." (p. 70)
How did she arrive at this conclusion?
She limited her definition of "trauma" to abuse that was "overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening". (p. 67)
Then she determined that only two of her subjects perceived that level of threat, and parenthetically dismissed one of these subjects' reports as "bizarre" and "questionable" (p. 68).
Clancy discounted all lesser levels of distress as nontraumatic, essentially re-rating them all as #1 on her 10-point trauma scale.
Why did she even bother asking them to rate their levels of trauma if she planned to ignore their reports?
Clancy considers the following reports of two of her subjects as lacking in trauma:
"I went from confused to bewildered to scared . . . it culminated in me feeling somewhat angry and betrayed."
"I didn't think of it as sex, I just thought of it as disgusting . . ."
To further make her case, she wrote that two men, "while reporting that the [rape] was painful, did not describe it as traumatic [recall Clancy's definition of trauma: 'overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening']. In the words of one of the victims, 'He would always say if you love me you'll do it. It hurt, and after a while I knew it was wrong, but not at the beginning.' The other victim of penetration reported, 'I didn't like it-- I knew it was wrong-- but it was better than having to go back to DYS [Department of Youth Services custody]'."
Clancy dismisses painful rape of a child as nontraumatic simply because the victims did not describe the abuse as "overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening".
She also dismissed as nontraumatic all other painful emotional states described by her 27 subjects, including:
"definitely feeling dirty"
"I couldn't breathe"
"I was shocked at what was happening, and I think I was afraid, there was a lot of weirdness, insecurity, a lot of anger"
"I thought it was my fault."
Clancy categorizes all such psychological reactions as, "unpleasant, distressing, or confusing, but not traumatic."
Clancy acknowledges that, "All of our subjects (1) had either symptoms or diagnoses of PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] and (2) reported negative life effects from the abuse." (p. 71)
Yet, this does not influence Clancy to consider that they might have suffered trauma at the time of their abuse. Instead, she states that since child sexual abuse is, "not necessarily traumatic at the time it occurs", "it may be the retrospective interpretation of the event, rather than the event itself, that mediates its subsequent impact." (P. 72)
In her words, the later PTSD is the result of, "an understandable tendency to project our adult fears, repulsion, and horror onto child victims".
So, she claims, it is adults, especially therapists per her book, "The Trauma Myth", who project their own project fear, repulsion, and horror onto child sexual abuse.
She ignores her subjects' own reports of contemporaneous fear, repulsion, and horror.
And then she entitles her book, "The Trauma Myth", categorically painting sexual abuse as nontraumatic with one sweeping brush stroke.
To reiterate, a mean score of 7.5 on a 10-point scale of trauma is very high.
Clancy has no objective basis to dismiss as a myth her subjects' experiences of having been traumatized by their sexual abuse, simply because their reports did not meet her overly-restrictive criteria of overwhelming terror or having feared for their lives.
It is important to note that the McNally-Clancy article was published in the journal, "The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice", which claims to be peer-reviewed and endorsed by, "The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health" (CSMMH). Scott Lilienfeld is founder and editor of this journal and of the CSMMH. Many of the coordinating committee and fellows of the CSMMH have a long history of affiliation with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and of advocating on behalf of accused sex abuse offenders in legal actions. These fellows include Elizabeth Loftus, Paul McHugh, and Harrison Pope. I believe it is necessary to question the degree of scientific objectivity of the peer-review process of this article by Clancy and McNally.
Clancy's book also oddly neglects to adequately incorporate the vast body of psychological research documenting the myriad short-term damaging effects of sexual abuse on children. It is standard for psychologists to first conduct an unbiased review of the literature on our subject and to include that review in our books and papers. Clancy failed to do conduct such a review. Instead, she selectively cites only a few studies that support her position. This approach suggests that Clancy has a biased agenda rather than an objective of honestly representing the work in the field. This raises questions of potential bias in her research methods, her interviews of victims, and her interpretation of her results.
As a psychologist for 24 years, I have treated hundreds of abused children and adults abused as children. Cases of children experiencing only "confusion" her thesis) during the time period of their abuse are very rare. In most cases, abused children and adults abused as children report that during the time in which they were abused, in addition to confusion of various types, they experienced a combination of many of the following:
1. Physical pain, in some cases extreme.
2. Disgust for the sexual acts, abuser genitalia and emissions.
3. Terror in cases of extreme force, restraint, or restriction of the child's breathing, gagging, etc.
4. Terror based in threats to self, loved one, pets, etc., to ensure compliance and/or to prevent disclosure.
5. Fear based in the abuser over-riding their attempts to escape, ignoring their pleas for the abuser to stop, etc.
6. Fear, shame, and guilt, based in an awareness that private parts should be covered and not bothered (molested), and an awareness that the abuser was making great efforts to hide the abuse, to keep it secret, and to ensure that they kept it secret, causing the child to understand that these acts were harmful and morally wrong, as in hitting someone, stealing, lying, etc.
7. Betrayal and hurt in cases of abuse by loved ones, based in an awareness that the abuser was engaging them in harmful and immoral acts, and in many cases, that family members were allowing the abuse to continue.
8. Guilt and shame for not escaping or physically fighting off the abuser. (The truth is that children usually understand in the moment that they will be overpowered or assaulted for resisting)
9. Feeling like an "accomplice" based in receiving gifts and special privileges from the abuser. Clancy portrays these "gifts" as "benefits" that the child derives from sexual abuse. This equates child victims with prostitutes who trade money for sex. But, children cannot enter "contracts" to be sexually exploited. Sexual abuse is imposed on children against their will and with no knowledge of the meaning of sexuality. Abusers then use gifts and favors to further manipulate and entrap children.
10. Anxiety-producing sexual arousal during the abuse, in cases in which the abuser took precautions to prevent or minimize the perception of pain.
11. Residual sexual feelings and responses that caused great anxiety, crying, tantrums, pleas to caregivers to, "Make it [the sexual response] stop", etc.
12. Rage at the abuser for inflicting the above.
13. Social, behavioral, and cognitive (including academic) problems driven by the above.
14. Physical damage, including damage to internal organs, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and in some rare cases, death.
In addition, when children first disclose their abuse, the supportive caregivers in their life typically are devastated to have discovered the true basis for their children's recent psychological and physical problems, such as separation anxiety, nightmares and night terrors, frequent crying, assorted fears, defiance, temper tantrums, academic problems, urinary and bowel "accidents", etc. All of these are clear indicators that the sexual abuse was damaging to the child pre-disclosure.
I do not discount the rare cases of children feeling only "confused" during the period of their sexual abuse. However, this reaction usually occurs only in cases that do not involve pain, coercion, and threats, that involve more "mild" sexual acts, that are very short-term, and in younger children.
My internet search reveals that Susan Clancy is an experimental psychologist. I have found no evidence that she is a licensed psychologist or psychotherapist of any kind. I do not believe that a non-therapist is adequately experienced to write a book about the effects of child sexual abuse. Read more ›
Her book is based in part on an article she co-authored with Richard J. McNally, entitled, " 'Who Needs Repression? Normal Memory Processes Can Explain Forgetting' of Childhood Sexual Abuse", published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice (2005/2006, Fall/Winter 4(2)).
In this study, Clancy asked 27 adults who reported sexual abuse as children to rate their levels of trauma at the time of their abuse on a 10-point scale, with #10 to indicate "extremely traumatic" and #1 to indicate "not traumatic at all". The average rating was 7.5.
Any logical person would consider 7.5 on a 10-point scale to be quite high.
Not Susan Clancy!
She concluded that child sexual abuse "experiences were unpleasant, distressing, or confusing, but not traumatic (e.g., terrifying) at the time they occurred." (p. 70)
How did she arrive at this conclusion?
She limited her definition of "trauma" to abuse that was "overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening". (p. 67)
Then she determined that only two of her subjects perceived that level of threat, and parenthetically dismissed one of these subjects' reports as "bizarre" and "questionable" (p. 68).
Clancy discounted all lesser levels of distress as nontraumatic, essentially re-rating them all as #1 on her 10-point trauma scale.
Why did she even bother asking them to rate their levels of trauma if she planned to ignore their reports?
Clancy considers the following reports of two of her subjects as lacking in trauma:
"I went from confused to bewildered to scared . . . it culminated in me feeling somewhat angry and betrayed."
"I didn't think of it as sex, I just thought of it as disgusting . . ."
To further make her case, she wrote that two men, "while reporting that the [rape] was painful, did not describe it as traumatic [recall Clancy's definition of trauma: 'overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening']. In the words of one of the victims, 'He would always say if you love me you'll do it. It hurt, and after a while I knew it was wrong, but not at the beginning.' The other victim of penetration reported, 'I didn't like it-- I knew it was wrong-- but it was better than having to go back to DYS [Department of Youth Services custody]'."
Clancy dismisses painful rape of a child as nontraumatic simply because the victims did not describe the abuse as "overwhelmingly terrifying or perceived as life threatening".
She also dismissed as nontraumatic all other painful emotional states described by her 27 subjects, including:
"definitely feeling dirty"
"I couldn't breathe"
"I was shocked at what was happening, and I think I was afraid, there was a lot of weirdness, insecurity, a lot of anger"
"I thought it was my fault."
Clancy categorizes all such psychological reactions as, "unpleasant, distressing, or confusing, but not traumatic."
Clancy acknowledges that, "All of our subjects (1) had either symptoms or diagnoses of PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder] and (2) reported negative life effects from the abuse." (p. 71)
Yet, this does not influence Clancy to consider that they might have suffered trauma at the time of their abuse. Instead, she states that since child sexual abuse is, "not necessarily traumatic at the time it occurs", "it may be the retrospective interpretation of the event, rather than the event itself, that mediates its subsequent impact." (P. 72)
In her words, the later PTSD is the result of, "an understandable tendency to project our adult fears, repulsion, and horror onto child victims".
So, she claims, it is adults, especially therapists per her book, "The Trauma Myth", who project their own project fear, repulsion, and horror onto child sexual abuse.
She ignores her subjects' own reports of contemporaneous fear, repulsion, and horror.
And then she entitles her book, "The Trauma Myth", categorically painting sexual abuse as nontraumatic with one sweeping brush stroke.
To reiterate, a mean score of 7.5 on a 10-point scale of trauma is very high.
Clancy has no objective basis to dismiss as a myth her subjects' experiences of having been traumatized by their sexual abuse, simply because their reports did not meet her overly-restrictive criteria of overwhelming terror or having feared for their lives.
It is important to note that the McNally-Clancy article was published in the journal, "The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice", which claims to be peer-reviewed and endorsed by, "The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health" (CSMMH). Scott Lilienfeld is founder and editor of this journal and of the CSMMH. Many of the coordinating committee and fellows of the CSMMH have a long history of affiliation with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and of advocating on behalf of accused sex abuse offenders in legal actions. These fellows include Elizabeth Loftus, Paul McHugh, and Harrison Pope. I believe it is necessary to question the degree of scientific objectivity of the peer-review process of this article by Clancy and McNally.
Clancy's book also oddly neglects to adequately incorporate the vast body of psychological research documenting the myriad short-term damaging effects of sexual abuse on children. It is standard for psychologists to first conduct an unbiased review of the literature on our subject and to include that review in our books and papers. Clancy failed to do conduct such a review. Instead, she selectively cites only a few studies that support her position. This approach suggests that Clancy has a biased agenda rather than an objective of honestly representing the work in the field. This raises questions of potential bias in her research methods, her interviews of victims, and her interpretation of her results.
As a psychologist for 24 years, I have treated hundreds of abused children and adults abused as children. Cases of children experiencing only "confusion" her thesis) during the time period of their abuse are very rare. In most cases, abused children and adults abused as children report that during the time in which they were abused, in addition to confusion of various types, they experienced a combination of many of the following:
1. Physical pain, in some cases extreme.
2. Disgust for the sexual acts, abuser genitalia and emissions.
3. Terror in cases of extreme force, restraint, or restriction of the child's breathing, gagging, etc.
4. Terror based in threats to self, loved one, pets, etc., to ensure compliance and/or to prevent disclosure.
5. Fear based in the abuser over-riding their attempts to escape, ignoring their pleas for the abuser to stop, etc.
6. Fear, shame, and guilt, based in an awareness that private parts should be covered and not bothered (molested), and an awareness that the abuser was making great efforts to hide the abuse, to keep it secret, and to ensure that they kept it secret, causing the child to understand that these acts were harmful and morally wrong, as in hitting someone, stealing, lying, etc.
7. Betrayal and hurt in cases of abuse by loved ones, based in an awareness that the abuser was engaging them in harmful and immoral acts, and in many cases, that family members were allowing the abuse to continue.
8. Guilt and shame for not escaping or physically fighting off the abuser. (The truth is that children usually understand in the moment that they will be overpowered or assaulted for resisting)
9. Feeling like an "accomplice" based in receiving gifts and special privileges from the abuser. Clancy portrays these "gifts" as "benefits" that the child derives from sexual abuse. This equates child victims with prostitutes who trade money for sex. But, children cannot enter "contracts" to be sexually exploited. Sexual abuse is imposed on children against their will and with no knowledge of the meaning of sexuality. Abusers then use gifts and favors to further manipulate and entrap children.
10. Anxiety-producing sexual arousal during the abuse, in cases in which the abuser took precautions to prevent or minimize the perception of pain.
11. Residual sexual feelings and responses that caused great anxiety, crying, tantrums, pleas to caregivers to, "Make it [the sexual response] stop", etc.
12. Rage at the abuser for inflicting the above.
13. Social, behavioral, and cognitive (including academic) problems driven by the above.
14. Physical damage, including damage to internal organs, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and in some rare cases, death.
In addition, when children first disclose their abuse, the supportive caregivers in their life typically are devastated to have discovered the true basis for their children's recent psychological and physical problems, such as separation anxiety, nightmares and night terrors, frequent crying, assorted fears, defiance, temper tantrums, academic problems, urinary and bowel "accidents", etc. All of these are clear indicators that the sexual abuse was damaging to the child pre-disclosure.
I do not discount the rare cases of children feeling only "confused" during the period of their sexual abuse. However, this reaction usually occurs only in cases that do not involve pain, coercion, and threats, that involve more "mild" sexual acts, that are very short-term, and in younger children.
My internet search reveals that Susan Clancy is an experimental psychologist. I have found no evidence that she is a licensed psychologist or psychotherapist of any kind. I do not believe that a non-therapist is adequately experienced to write a book about the effects of child sexual abuse. Read more ›
20 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By L Gray
Format:Hardcover
I read this book and found that it encapsulated those aspects of my own abuse that I was most disturbed by - the aspects that I've felt the most uncomfortable about sharing with anyone else. During the earliest part of my abuse I felt confused and uncomfortable about what was going on, but didn't understand it, and (like many of the subjects talked about in the book) cooperated with my abuser. It was only as I got older and learned what sex was, even as the abuse continued, that I came to realize what he was and had been doing to me for so many years. It is these later episodes that I still have flashbacks and classic PTSD symptoms about, but I feel relatively comfortable talking about them. On the other hand, the bulk of my guilt and shame is wrapped up in my earliest experiences, when I was still a participant in the events that occurred.
I felt that this book validated the conclusions that I had already come to on my own - that I could not have responded in a way other than how I did because I just did not have the information or the developmental capacity to understand what was going on. I had no way to accurately evaluate the consequences of any action I could take. I was relieved to see so many similar experiences put down in print.
And I was surprised at how many one star reviews there were for this book when I came to amazon.com.
I feel like this book could be tremendously helpful for a huge number of csa victims. Does it mirror the experiences of all victims? No, of course not. There's a huge diversity of human experience out there and no single theory can or should be applied to all cases. But for a significant population of victims, including myself, I feel that this could be a hugely important book that can help remove feelings of guilt, shame, and solitude.
Honestly, I wish I had read it sooner.
I felt that this book validated the conclusions that I had already come to on my own - that I could not have responded in a way other than how I did because I just did not have the information or the developmental capacity to understand what was going on. I had no way to accurately evaluate the consequences of any action I could take. I was relieved to see so many similar experiences put down in print.
And I was surprised at how many one star reviews there were for this book when I came to amazon.com.
I feel like this book could be tremendously helpful for a huge number of csa victims. Does it mirror the experiences of all victims? No, of course not. There's a huge diversity of human experience out there and no single theory can or should be applied to all cases. But for a significant population of victims, including myself, I feel that this could be a hugely important book that can help remove feelings of guilt, shame, and solitude.
Honestly, I wish I had read it sooner.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Appalling
This is rubbish and so very insulting to people who have lived through such trauma. I can't believe anyone could write this.
Published 2 days ago by U2 fan
1.0 out of 5 stars
ABSOLUTELY DESPICABLE
My advice is not to buy this trash. This Clancy Woman just HAS to be a paedophile defender, because no-one in their right mind could possibly say that sexually abused children do... Read more
Published 10 days ago by sky
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightning book about non-violent sexual abuse
Clancy makes the point that victims of sexual abuse which did not include physical violence, but rather the abuse of trust and knowledge, are damaged by the conventional image that... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Annika Nußbaum
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a self-help book per se.
This is more of a thesis, an argument by the author that the school of thought which says that child sexual abuse is invariably traumatic needs to be challenged and she lays out... Read more
Published 23 days ago by nelbikmit
1.0 out of 5 stars
PATHETIC.
It is not unheard of for scientists to twist their findings in a way that "proves" that their theory is correct, but this "Dr." takes it to a new level. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rachel
1.0 out of 5 stars
Insulting to Children
I found the Book Description for The Trauma Myth to be grossly insulting to children. To state that abuse does not cause trauma is like saying that fire does not burn you. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Alydars Crown
1.0 out of 5 stars
I LIVED THE LIFE OF RITUAL ABUSE AND TORTURE
I have not purchased this book and I will not per the reviews! I am 60 years old and I lived the life of ritual abuse and torture. No one is going to call me a 'liar' again. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Lady
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important Insights.
As a routinely abused (and why don't we say raped?) child, I was continually confused until I read this book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by MmeBelvedere
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truth about abuse
Susan Clancy has discovered the real truth for those abused by someone they trusted and was close to them. Many people have preconceived ideas about this book without reading it. Read more
Published 6 months ago by leann lang
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book
As a sexual abuse survivor it was a true blessing to read Susan Clancy's book. By exposing the myth of trauma during the abuse she has helped me to not feel shame concerning the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Gwen
