ABSTRACT
If it’s true that we learn our sense of who we are by having the views of other people reflected to us, then survivors of childhood sexual abuse are offered an utterly confusing kaleidoscope of conflicting views. Child sexual abuse is not simply what happens between the perpetrator(s) and the child, but also the stance taken by families and the prevailing political, judicial and social culture. If survivors want to make some sense of what happened, and therapists wish to help survivors thrive, both must track society’s mixed, discordant and evolving reactions.
Therapeutic discourse about child sexual abuse has always been embedded in the social and political ‘zeitgeist’ when the issue was presented. Because there are dramatic and significant changes in political and social attitudes towards survivors of child sexual abuse, which are allowing previously silenced voices to express themselves, we are now able to write this chapter describing the complexities of societal and therapeutic ideas about and attitudes towards children who have been abused and their abusers. Both the authors write from a double position: one of us an NHS psychologist and the other an NHS psychotherapist, and also as survivors of child sexual abuse.
