ABSTRACT
Several themes run through this short story about the limits of the therapeutic relationship, the failure of the maternal, and the unspoken and hidden nature of sexual abuse. Here, we meet Natalie from ‘On the beach’, as a young woman in therapy. Having been sexually abused does not feature as one of the main underlying issues of the predicament she brings to therapy. I think it is not uncommon for abuse to remain unspoken, even in therapy, or even to be dismissed and minimised by the therapist. Inherently connected with such a dismissal is a sense of self as flawed and bad or disgusting. Such a sense of one’s badness is enacted here in the context of the therapy relationship, and it only begins to become disentangled when the experience of sexual abuse is acknowledged and grappled with.
