ABSTRACT
Survivors not uncommonly find themselves behaving in ways that seem inexplicable or compulsive, or that do not make sense in the present. They may have symptoms (somatic sensations, phobias about otherwise innocuous objects, sexual preferences) about which they feel much shame, and patterns of interpersonal behavior that they repeat even though these get them in trouble. Therapists working with survivors frequently find that such behaviors and feelings resolve themselves only when specific episodes of abuse are recalled and worked through. For example, one woman's obsessive image of canned goods made sense when she finally remembered being raped in a basement storeroom. She had concentrated on the canned goods on the shelf in front of her, in order to dissociate from the horror of the event.
