Adult Analysis and Childhood Sexual Abuse

Following a case study approach organized around the psychoanalytic process, this volume addresses clinical issues that arise in analytic work with adult patients 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, including the capacity to form trusting relationships; to experience desire and enjoy sexual intimacy; to have conviction about what is real; and to use symbols in fantasies, dreams, and play. Collectively, the contributors impart clinical and conceptual focus to a previously ignored group of patients. Indeed, among their achievements is simple demonstration of the fact that, despite differences among them, adults who were sexually abused as children are sufficiently similar to warrant being studied as a group. This book launches such study in an exemplary way. It will be a fundamental text for all analysts and therapists engaged in the long-term, intensive care of these patients.Levine, Howard B. is the author of 'Adult Analysis and Childhood Sexual Abuse', published 1990 under ISBN 9780881630831 and ISBN 0881630837.