The Trauma Myth: The Truth About the Sexual Abuse of Children--and Its Aftermath

Front Cover
Basic Books, Dec 15, 2009 - Psychology - 256 pages
Drawing on the latest research on memory and traumatic experience, Susan Clancy, an expert in experimental psychopathology, demonstrates that children describe abuse and molestation encounters in ways that don't fit the conventional trauma model. In fact, the most common feeling reported is not fear but confusion.

Clancy calls for an honest look at sexual abuse and its aftermath, and argues that the reactions of society and the healing professions -- however well meaning -- actually shackle the victims of abuse in chains of guilt, secrecy, and shame. Pathbreaking and controversial, The Trauma Myth radically reshapes our understanding of sexual abuse and its consequences.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
1
23
2
47
3
77
4
111
5
149
Conclusion
179
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
205
NOTES
207
INDEX
231
Copyright

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About the author (2009)

Susan A. Clancy, Ph.D., is Research Director of the Center for Women's Advancement, Development, and Leadership at INCAE, the Central American Institute for Business Administration in Nicaragua. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Managua, Nicaragua.

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