Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a therapist who works with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, I am always searching for books which provide new perspectives and formulations on the topic of sexual abuse. The book by Jody Messler Davies & Mary Gail Frawley provided a cogent argument for the importance of a psychoanalytically informed framework in treating adult survivors. The authors do an excellent analysis of the bodies of literature from the fields of psychoanalytic thought and trauma based research/therapy. The reader is then shown perhaps previously unnoticed connections between the two bodies of literature. There are numerous case examples throughout the book to illustrate the various concepts that are discussed.

I gave this book five stars, because any book which causes an individual to reexamine their theoretical orientation/mode of conducting therapy, should definitely be sitting on their bookshelf at home.

Although this book is written for therapists and analysts -- not their clients -- I found it invaluable. Reading it as an accompaniment to my ongoing therapy helped me to listen better to myself and to my therapist, and to understand the many obscure and puzzling episodes and interactions that were taking place during sessions and outside of them. The authors are clearly experts in their field. Their book contextualized and provided insight into both my own history of childhood sexual abuse and the twists and turns of the therapeutic process in general. Despite its sometimes highly technical language for which I had to consult a dictionary, this book is the most focused and helpful work on the subject that I have read. I'm very grateful to its authors for writing it and recommend it without reservation.

I am currently in therapy and this book has been a God send! It has made my experiences in therapy much more meaningful. Also has made my therapy process easier to handle during all those difficult times. Great book to have if you're currently going through your own CSA therapy!

This book is absolutely essential for any therapist working with victims of childhood sexual abuse; it provides detailed insight into the complex internal struggles of these clients during adulthood, and keenly explains their symptom presentation in an empathic and understandable manner. Regardless of one's theoretical orientation, I highly recommended this outstanding book!

Excellent book.Every worker in mental health should read it.It offers a deep, wise and well informed psychoanalytic approach to the issue of abuse. I feel I'm a better person and psychoanalyst after reading it.

As a psychology intern from a psychodynamic background working with numerous childhood sexual abuse (CSA) survivors, I found this book extremely helpful and inspiring. The conceptualizations about working with CSA survivors and the integration with trauma research are solid and insightful. The case material is effective in clarifying the concepts and bringing to life the importance of this healing process and the meaning to be found in it. In addition, I found the broader perspective on modern, relational psychoanalytic psychotherapy clear and rich. It helped reconnect me with the value of this approach and with the complexity of the therapeutic interaction.

I imagine this book would be too technical for most therapy clients/patients as it was a demanding, dense read for me after several years of coursework and experience, but who am I to say?

This is the most amazing book I have ever read. This changed my life in many ways. I am also a professor at Harvard, and intellectually the book is solid and very compelling. A must read for anyone for its challenges to Freud and more broadly psychoanalysis while preserving a psychoanalytic framework, and an absolute must read for anyone who has suffered violence, anyone who thinks they are bipolar or psychotic but has suffered violence, anyone who knows anyone who has suffered abuse or violence, and anyone who cares.

Every analyst should read this excellent book which discusses child sex abuse. Informative, clear, compassionate, intelligent. A must.