ABSTRACT
Some victims of child sexual abuse will recover completely, some will seem to have put their experiences completely behind them, only to find themselves overwhelmed by painful memories later; for many others their lives will be dogged by a variety of ills, such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, self-destructive behaviour, a tendency to substance abuse and revictimization, and difficulties in allowing themselves to trust anyone. At the far end of this continuum of damage lies total psychiatric breakdown, or suicide. Browne and Finkelhor (1986) suggest, conservatively, that less than one-fifth of survivors show evidence of serious pathology.
