Routledge Analysis of the Incest Trauma: Retrieval, Recovery, Renewal

Childhood sexual abuse within the family of origin and society's institutions, such as the church, education, sports, and the world of celebrity, has been neglected as a significant issue by psychoanalysis and society. The incest trauma needs to be understood as one of the most significant problems of contemporary society. This book is an attempt to re-establish incest trauma as a significant psychological disorder by tracing the evolutionary trajectory of psychoanalysis from the Seduction Theory to the Oedipal Therapy to the Confusion of Tongues Theory. By examining the theoretical, emotional, interpersonal, and political issues involved in Freud's abandoning the Seduction Hypothesis and replacing it with the Oedipal Complex, we can see how system building became more important than the emotional welfare of children. In a series of chapters the authors demonstrate this neglect of the incest trauma. Review "The authors have quite deftly managed to do something rare: write a book about complex and painful issues that is tonally perfect. Their approach uniquely pairs the clinical experience of analysis with the deep, non-intrusive empathy required when working with incest victims. With remarkable frankness, compassion, simplicity and intelligence, they allow us to accompany them on the very demanding journeys they undertook with their patients, leading us through not only the gratifying, at times almost miraculous episodes, but also through the rough, distressing, even almost hopeless hours. The humility and courage with which they share their experience commands respect. Truly, a wonderful book."--Michael Larivière, Psychoanalyst, Former Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine " Analysis of the Incest Trauma is an elegant, forceful narrative of an awakening. First is the realization within psychoanalytic theory and practice of the actuality - the all-too-frequent actuality - of sexual transgressions within families. Second is the documentation, in compelling jargon-free descriptions, of successive case studies. Arnold W. Rachman and Susan A. Klett poignantly illustrate the enormous courage their patients demonstrate in exposing the triad of victim, abuser, and bystander commonly present in incest trauma families. The reader will emerge with an enhanced sensitivity to the skill and empathic understanding required for helping patients to feel safe in the face of retraumatization - a model beginning with Ferenczi that illuminates an analytic approach today."--Joseph D. Lichtenberg, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Inquiry and the Psychoanalytic Inquiry book series "Arnold Rachman's work over the past three decades has greatly helped our field recognize the importance of childhood sexual trauma and Ferenczi's contributions. I highly recommend Rachman and Klett's new book. Using the original exchanges of letters, the authors have given us a detailed historical account of the struggle between Ferenczi and Freud over the role of childhood sexual trauma and its place in the history of psychoanalysis. Detailed case histories of adults vividly illustrate the consequences of this trauma."--Beatrice Beebe, Clinical Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry About the Author Susan A Klett