ABSTRACT
Child sexual abuse is damaging and traumatic both for children and for their families. It often occurs alongside other forms of abuse- neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse but sexual abuse has its own particular emotional impact for the entire family. Most sexual abuse involves adults already known to the child and family, even if they are not family members; stranger abuse is less frequent. Much will depend on the severity and nature of the abuse, the age of the child, and how long the abuse has been happening. The external trauma can be so powerful that it is easy to lose sight of the impact of the sexual abuse of a young girl on her mother's internal world; it may also be too difficult to think about. Where the abuser is the father, the normal oedipal situation is totally disrupted; in external reality the child has displaced her mother sexually, and oedipal wishes have been gratified.
