ABSTRACT
Child sexual abuse is an event in which an adult is involved and the child is left confused, frightened and ashamed (Kempe, C.H. & Kempe, R., 1984). The child may have been hurt, or be excited, or both. If abuse has occurred over a prolonged period, the child may be flat, withdrawn and apathetic or angry, defiant and difficult. Some children and young people may also express their distress through self harm, or become anorexic, or run away to live on the streets. The emotional impact is what needs to be understood, what has happened in the individual’s mind, if we are to intervene most effectively. Sexual abuse is of a different order from other forms of abuse, because of the linking up of sexuality and aggression. Such violence results in a very primitive destruction of the child’s mind. Irving Kaufman (1989) used the evocative term ‘soul murder’ to describe emotional abuse. In sexual abuse, there is nearly always an element of physical abuse, but there is also serious emotional abuse. At one and the same time, the child’s mind and body are being ‘raped’. The child’s body may recover fairly quickly once the abuse has ceased, but the mind is left profoundly traumatized. While we do not yet fully understand all that happens to the developing mind, the more we struggle to do so, the more damaging sexual abuse is revealed to be (Renvoize, J., 1983; Morris, M., 1982; Baker Miller, 1976).
